NT 


t>m  it 


presented  to  the 
UNIVERSITY  LIBRARY 
UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA 
SAN  DIEGO 

by 

Tom  Ham 


ANCIENT    HISTORY 

FROM  THE  MONUMENTS. 

PERSIA. 


ANCIENT    HISTORY 

FROM  THE  MONUMENTS. 


I  F  C  Y  P  T   From  the  earliest  times  to  B- c-  3°°- 

By  S.  BIRCH,  LL.D. 

II    ASSYRIA.  From  the  earliest  times  to  the  fal1  of  Nineveh. 
By  GEORGE  SMITH,  of  the  British  Museum. 

Ill    P  E  RS I A  From  tne  earliest  period  to  the  Arab  Conquest. 
By  W.  S.  W.  VAUX,  M.  A.  F.  R.  S. 


In  this  series  we  have  a  compact  but  popular  presentation  of 
the  highly  important  results  of  recent  archaeological  investigation. 
The  annals  of  Egypt,  Assyria  and  Persia,  as  derived  from  the 
monuments  and  from  the  cuneiform  inscriptions  generally,  are  of 
the  greatest  importance  to  understanding  the  development  of 
human  civilization  and  the  tendency  of  religious  thought.  Besides 
this  there  has  been  brought  out  a  mass  of  evidence  and  illustration 
on  manners  and  customs,  language  and  literature,  tending  to 
throw  light  on  the  earlier  books  of  the  Bible,  a  knowledge  of 
which  is  indispensable  to  every  well-informed  man.  This  has 
heretofore  been  practically  inaccessible  because  of  the  recondite 
manner  in  which  it  has  been  discussed.  Each  of  these  volumes 
has  been  prepared  by  specialists  who  are  masters  of  their  respective 
departments. 


Each  volume  handsomely  illustrated.      Small  I2mo.      Cloth. 
Price,  $1.00. 

f*t  SENT  POST-PAID,  UPON  RECEIPT  OF  PRICE,  BY 

SCRISNER,  ARMSTRONG  &  CO., 

New  York. 


ROCK  OF  BEHISTAN. 


ANCIENT    HISTORY 


FROM   THE   MONUMENTS. 


PERSIA 


FROM   THE 


EARLIEST  PERIOD   TO  THE  ARAB  CONQUEST. 

BY 
W.    S.  W.  VAUX,    M.  A.,    F.  R.  S. 


NEW    YORK: 

SCRIBNER,  ARMSTRONG  &  CO. 
1876. 


GRANT,  FAIRBS  &  RODGERS, 

Electrotypers  and  Printers, 

62  *  54  N.  SIXTH  ST., 

PHILADELPHIA. 


CONTENTS. 


LIST  OF  DYNASTIES Page  vi. 

INTRODUCTION Page  vii. 

CHAPTER    I. 

Cyrus — Croesus — War  in  North-east  Asia — Fall  of  Babylon — • 
Tomb  of  Cyrus — Cambyses — Pseudo-Bardes — Darius— Cam- 
paign in  Scythia — Home  at  Susa — Inscription  and  Coin  of 
Pythagoras — Burning  of  Sardis — Second  Invasion  of  Europe — 
Marathon Page  16 

CHAPTER     II. 

Xerxes — Canal  of  Athos — Thermopylae — Salamis — Artaxerxes  I. 
— Darius  II. — Artaxerxes  II. — Cyrus  the  Younger — Ochus — 
Darius  III. — Alexander — Graneikus — Issus — Visit  to  Jerusa- 
lem— Arbela , Page  46 

CHAPTER    III. 

Daniel — Darius  the  Mede Page  73 

CHAPTER    IV. 

Tomb  of  Cyrus — Inscriptions  of  Darius — Behistdn — Vdn,  &c. — 
Inscriptions  of  Xerxes — Artaxerxes,  &c. — Persepolis — Istakhr — 
Susa — Tomb  of  Darius .. Page  87 

CHAPTER    V. 

Arsacidae — Arsakes  I — Tiridates  I — Artabanus  I — Mithradates  I — 
Phraates  II — Scythian  Invasion- -Mithradates  II — Progress  of 
the  Romans — Orodes — Crassus — Pompey — Antony — Tiridates, 
son  of  Vologases — Trajanus — Avidius  Cassius — Severus — Arta- 
banus— Battle  of  Nisibis Page  123 

CHAPTER    VI. 

Sassanidae  —  Ardashir  I.  —  Shahpur  I.  — Valerian  — Odaenathus — 
Varahrdn  II. — Tiridates  of  Armenia — Galerius  — Narses — Shah- 
pur  II. — Zu'laktaf — Julian  III. — Firaz  I. — Nushirwdn — Mauri- 
cius — Khosru  II. —  Heraclius — Muhammed — Yezdigird  III. — 
Muhammedan  Conquest  —  Sassanian  Monuments  at  Nakhsh- 
i-Rustdm,  Nakhsh-i-Regib,  Shahpur,  Takht-i-Bostan  —  Mr. 
Thomas's  interpretation  of  the  inscriptions  at  Hajiabad. 

Page  154 

5 


LIST   OF   DYNASTIES. 


[Occasionally,  these  dates  are  only  approximate :  it  has  not  been  thought 
necessary  to  insert  the  names  of  rulers  who  ruled  for  less  than  a  year.] 


I.    EARLY   PERSIAN   (ACH.ffiMENID/E). 


Cambyses  I  

B.C. 
558 

B.C. 
Xerxes  486 

MO 

Pscudo-Smerdis  (Bar- 
des)  
Darius  I  

544 

5« 

Darius  11  (Nothus)  425-24 
Artaxerxes  II  (Mne- 
mon)  405 

Artaxerxes  III 

(Ochus)  jjg 
Arses 338-37 


Darius     III     (Codo- 
mannus). 


336 


(Battle  of  Arbela)....  331 


2     ARSACID/E. 

[Each  of  these  princes  bore  also  the  dynastic  title  of  Arsakcs ;  hence 
Mithradates  I  is  the  same  as  Arsakes  VI.] 

A.D. 

Pacorus  II 78? 

Mithradates  IV 107 

Chosroes II J 

Vologases  II 130 

Vologases  III 149 

Vologases  IV 191 

Vologases  V I 

Artabanus  IV aijf 

(Battle  of  Hormazd 
and  death  of  Arta- 
banus IV) 226 


A.D. 

Kobad...:. 488 

Jamasp 498 

Khosru  I  (Nushir- 

wan) 531 

Hormazd  IV 579 

Khosru  II  (Parviz)...  591 
Kobad  II  (Sheruyieh)  628 

Yezdigird  III 6ja 

(Overthrown  by  the 

Musulmans) 641 


B.C. 

B.C. 

Mithradates  III  60 

Tiridates  1  147 

Orodes  1  56-55 
Phraates  IV  37 

Phraates  1  181 

Orodes  II  j  ful. 

Phraates  II  136 

Artabanus  II  128-7 
Mithradates  II  124 

Artabanus  III  16 

Gotarzes  -|  dates  doubt. 

Phraates  III  66 

A.D. 

Ardashir  I  (Babekan)  226 

Vologases  I  51 

SASSANIDJE. 

A.D. 

Ardashir  II  381 

Shahpur  III  385 

Hormazd  1  273 

Varahran  IV  (Ker- 

Varahran  1  474 

Varahran  II  277 
Varahran  HI  294 
Naries  294 
Hormazd  II  303 

Yezdigird  1  404 
Varahran  V  (Gaur)..  420 
Yezdigird  II  448 
Hormazd  III  458 

Shahpur  II  (Zu'luk- 

tuf)....                ,...  310 

Palash....  ..  484 

HISTORY  OF  PERSIA, 


FROM  THE  EARLIEST  PERIOD  TO  THE  OVERTHROW  OF  ITS 
NATIVE  DYNASTIES  BY  THE  MUHAMMEDANS. 


INTRODUCTION. 

THE  history  of  Persia,  as  generally  understood, 
may  be  considered  as  a  supplement  to  that  of  Assyria 
and  Babylonia,  the  events  that  have  made  her  most 
famous  in  antiquity  having  been  achieved  after  the 
empire  of  the  first  had  passed  away,  and  the  second 
had  been  subjugated  by  the  Persians. 

The  small  province  of  Persis  (in  the  Bible  Paras, 
in  the  native  inscriptions  Parsd),  whence  the  name 
of  Persia  is  derived,  was  bounded  on  the  north  by 
Media,  on  the  south  by  the  Persian  Gulf  and  Indian 
Ocean,  on  the  east  by  Caramania  (Kerman),  and  on 
the  west  by  Susiana.  It  was,  indeed,  nearly  the 
same  district  as  the  modern  Farsistan,  the  name  of 
which  is  obviously  derived  from  it ;  and  in  length 
and  breadth  not  more  than  450  and  250  miles  re- 
spectively. 

With  regard  to  the  population  which  occupied  this 
district  at  the  earliest  historical  periodj  it  is  certain 

7 


8  HISTORY   OF    PERSIA. 

from  the  Cuneiform  inscriptions,  that  they  were  not 
the  original  dwellers  in  the  district,  but  themselves 
immigrants,  though  it  is  not  so  certain  whence.  It 
would  lead  us  too  far  a-field  to  discuss  here  the  wide 
question  of  the  settlement  of  the  nations  after  the 
Biblical  Flood,  confirmed  so  remarkably  as  this  is  by 
Mr.  George  Smith's  recent  discoveries.  Moreover, 
it  is  not  possible  to  fill  up,  except  conjecturally, 
many  wide  spaces,  both  of  time  and  territory.  Ad- 
mitting, however,  the  existence  of  a  Deluge,  such 
as  that  recorded  in  Holy  Writ,  a  long  period  must 
have  elapsed  before  the  different  families  of  mankind 
had  arranged  themselves  in  the  groups  and  in  the  dis- 
tricts we  find  them  occupying  at  the  dawn  of  history. 

There  are  reasonable  grounds  for  thinking  the 
highlands  of  Central  Asia  the  historical  cradle  of 
the  Japhetic  race ;  whether,  with  some  writers,  we 
conceive  this  mountainous  region  to  be  the  Alpine 
plateau  of  Little  Bokhara,  or,  with  others,  the  great 
chain  south  and  south-west  of  the  Caspian  Sea:  the 
first  theory  suits  best  for  a  descent  into  India ;  the 
second  for  a  migration  into  Europe.* 

The  former  view,  taken  broadly,  is  confirmed  by 
the  early  Persian  traditions  preserved  in  the  two  first 
chapters  of  the  Vendidad,  (though  this  compilation 
as  we  now  have  it,  is  very  modern),  an  outline,  in 

*  I  venture  to  think  it  unwise  to  attempt,  with  Clinton  and  other 
learned  chronologists,  to  space  out  the  time  occupied  for  each  set- 
tlement or  movement  of  the  nations  after  the  Flood,  or  to  attempt 
to  ascertain  the  number  of  the  population  of  pre-historic  Asia. 
For  such  speculations,  we  have,  assuredly,  no  reliable  data. 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  9 

the  judgment  of  Heeren,  so  evidently  historical,  as 
to  require  nothing  but  sufficient  geographical  know- 
ledge for  the  identification  of  the  places  therein 
mentioned.  Whether  any  of  these  traditional  le- 
gends are  really  due  to  Zoroaster  (Zaratrusthra), 
[indeed  whether  a  Zoroaster  ever  lived],  is  of  little 
importance :  but  this  much,  however,  is  certain  that 
they  enshrine  fragments  of  the  most  ancient  belief 
of  the  Persians.  Thus,  they  describe  as  the  original 
seat  of  the  Persian  race,  a  delicious  country  named 
Eriene-Veedjo,  the  first  creation  of  Ormuzd,  the 
Spirit  of  Good,  with  a  climate  of  seven  months  of 
summer  and  five  of  winter.  But  Ahriman,  the 
Spirit  of  Evil,  smote  this  land  with  the  plague  of 
ever-increasing  cold,  till  at  last  it  had  only  two 
months  of  summer  to  ten  of  winter.  Hence,  the 
people  quitted  their  ancient  homes,  Ahriman  having, 
for  fifteen  successive  times,  thwarted  the  good  works 
of  Ormuzd,  and  having,  by  one  device  or  another, 
rendered  each  new  abode  uninhabitable.  The  names 
of  these  abodes  are  given  and  some  of  them  may  be 
even  now  identified  ;  and  there  can  be  little  doubt, 
that  they  indicate  a  migration  from  the  north-east 
towards  the  south  and  south-west,  that  is,  from  the 
Hindu-Kush  westward  to  Media  and  Persia.  The 
original  situation  of  Eriene,  a  name  of  the  same 
origin  as  the  modern  Iran  (and  possibly  of  Erin  or 
Ireland),  would,  on  this  supposition,  be  to  the  north 
of  the  western  chains  of  the  Himalaya,  a  country 
enjoying  a  short  summer,  and  great  extremes  of  heat 
and  cold. 


10  HISTORY  OF   PERSIA. 

Such,  briefly,  is  the  legendary  'story  of  Persia, 
which  it  is  best  to  leave  as  it  is.  As,  however,  I 
shall  have  again  to  refer  to  what  has  been  called  the 
creed  of  Zoroaster,  that  is,  the  theory  of  the  sepa- 
rate existence  of  principles  of  good  and  evil,  I  must 
give  the  substance  of  what  is  most  usually  acknow- 
ledged about  him  and  the  religious  system  named 
after  him.  Those  who  care  for  fuller  details  can 
consult  the  Zend-avesta  *  as  first  published  by  An- 
quetil  Du  Perron,  and  the  various  commentaries  or 
modifications  of  it,  suggested  by  the  studies  of  M. 
M.  Westergaard,  Spiegel,  Haug,  Burnouf,  Oppert, 
and  others. 

I  do  not  myself  doubt  that  Zoroaster,  whether  or 
not  a  king  (as  some  have  held),  was  truly  a  teacher 
and  reformer,  and,  further,  that  his  religious  views 
represent  the  reaction  of  the  mind  against  the  mere 
worship  of  nature,  tending  as  this  does,  directly,  to 
polytheism  and  to  the  doctrine  of  "Emanations." 
It  is,  I  think,  equally  evident  that  such  views  embody 
the  highest  struggle  of  the  human  intellect  (unaided 
by  Revelation)  towards  spiritualism,  and  that  they 
are,  so  far,  an  attempt  to  create  a  religious  system 
by  the  simple  energies  of  human  reason.  Hence 
their  general  direction  is  towards  a  pure  monothe- 

*  Zend-Avesta,  more  correctly  Avesta-u-Zend,  i.  e.  text  and 
commentary .  The  fragments  we  now  have  are  not  older,  if  so  old, 
as  A.  D.  226,  when  Ardashir  I.,  founded  the  Sassanian  Empire  in 
Persia.  Of  the  twenty-one  books  said  to  have  been  then  collected, 
one  only,  the  Vendidad  (Vidae-vadata),  "  the  law  against  demons," 
has  been  preserved  nearly  entire.  (Dr.  Haug,  Essays,  &c.,  Bom- 
bay, 1862  ) 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  II 

ism ;  and,  had  no  evil  existed  in  the  world,  the 
theory  embodying  them  would  have  remained  unas- 
sailed  and  logically  successful.  On  this  rock,  how- 
ever, all  the  spiritual  theories  of  early  times  neces- 
sarily split.  Zoroaster  or  his  disciples  halted  where 
all  must  halt  who  have  not  the  light  from  on  high, 
the  one  sure  support  of  Jew  and  Christian  alike. 
They  could  not  believe  that  God,  the  good,  the  just, 
the  pure,  and  the  perfect,  would  have  placed  evil  in 
a  world  he  must  have  created  good,  like  himself: 
hence,  as  evil  is  none  the  less  ever  present,  they 
were  forced  to  imagine  a  second  creator,  Ahriman, 
the  author  of  evil,  and  to  give  him,  during  the  pre- 
sent existence,  equal  power  with  that  wielded  by  the 
Spirit  of  Good.  They  held,  however  (and  this  is  a 
most  important  part  of  Zoroastrianism),  that  a  day 
would  come  when  the  powers  of  evil  would  be  finally 
annihilated,  and  the  truth  be  reinstated,  never  again 
to  fail.  I  ought  to  add  that  the  modern  Parsees, 
whether  of  Jezd  in  Persia  or  of  Bombay,  do  not 
represent  the  purity  of  the  original  Zoroastrian  faith, 
their  views  being  essentially  pantheistic,  in  that  they 
substitute  emanation  for  creation  and  confound  the 
distinction  of  good  and  evil,  by  making  both  spring 
from  one  creative  principle. 

Of  the  two  other  great  races  who  take  their  names 
respectively  from  Ham  and  Shem,  it  is  enough  to 
state  here  that  modern  philology  attributes  to  Ham 
the  Cushite  tribes  of  Arabia  and  Ethiopia,  the 
Egyptians,  Philistines,  Canaanites*,  and  the  Berber 

*  I  venture  myself  to  doubt  whether  the  Philistines  and  Canaan- 


12  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

races  of  North  Africa,  with,  probably,  some  of  the 
primeval  inhabitants  of  Southern  India  (the  Nisha- 
das)  and  the  most  remote  peoples  of  Northern  Eu- 
rope as  the  Finns. 

In  like  manner,  the  Shemitic  population  seems 
from  the  earliest  period  to  which  they  can  be  traced 
back,  to  have  occupied  nearly  the  same  abodes  as  in 
later  times,  viz: — the  range  of  country  from  Armenia 
(Arphaxad)  over  Assyria  and  Babylonia,  to  the 
southern  end  of  Arabia.  That  there  may  have  been 
in  the  southern  part  of  the  same  country  a  still  earlier 
race,  the  Accadians,  I  do  not  doubt. 

Certain  broad  characteristics  have  been  accepted 
as  distinguishing  in  a  remarkable  manner  each  of 
these  races.  Thus  the  so-called  Hamites  appear, 
universally,  as  the  pioneers  of  material  civilization, 
with  a  great  power  over  some  elements  of  knowledge, 
but  with  an  equally  entire  absence  of  all  elevating 
ideas.  Their  former  presence  is  recognised  in  the 
foundations  of  states  by  brute  force,  and  by  the  execu- 
tion of  gigantic  works  in  stone,  like  Stonehenge, 
Carnac,  &c.,  if,  indeed,  these  monuments  are,  as 
has  been  usually  maintained,  attributable  to  so  re- 
mote a  period.  Along,  however,  with  this  material 
grandeur,  we  find  the  grossest  forms  of  nature- 
worship  ;  while  so  remarkably  have  the  Hamite 

ites  were  the  same  race ;  certainly  from  what  we  know  of  them 
they  differ  greatly  in  character.  I  incline  to  think  the  Philistines 
the  same  as,  or  connected  with,  the  Phoenicians  and,  if  so,  She- 
mites  :  on  the  other  hand,  the  Canaanites  may  be  Hamites ;  but 
anyhow,  of  a  different  origin. 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  13 

population  fallen  into  the  background  or  disap- 
peared, in  comparison  with  the  other  races,  that  we 
are  forcibly  reminded  of  the  prophetic  words, 
"  Cursed  be  Canaan  (or  Ham),  a  servant  of  servants 
shall  he  be  unto  his  brethren ;"  and  again,  "Blessed 
be  the  Lord  God  of  Shem,  and  Canaan  shall  be  his 
servant."* 

In  striking  contrast  to  the  Hamites,  the  Japhetic 
peoples  appear  everywhere  as  the  promoters  of  moral 
as  well  as  of  intellectual  civilization.  As  a  rule, 
practisers  of  agriculture  rather  than  hunters,  with 
fixed  abodes  in  preference  to  tents,  their  several 
dialects  (now  easily  traceable  by  comparative  philo- 
logy) amply  confirm  the  early  existence  among  them 
of  institutions  fitted  to  raise  human  beings  above  the 
"beasts  that  perish." 

Hence  we  find  them,  in  the  most  remote  ages, 
planting  corn  and  feeding  on  meat  instead  of  on 
acorns  and  berries,  contracting  marriages  by  fixed 
and  settled  forms,  resisting  polygamy,  and  protecting 
their  wives  with  the  veneration  Tacitus  so  much 
admired  in  the  German  tribes  of  his  day.  To  them, 
also,  is  due  the  institution  of  the  Family  and  of  a 
Religion,  at  first,  as  shown  by  the  Vedic  hymns,  a 
pure  Theism — the  worship  of  one  God, — though 
with  an  early  and  natural  tendency  to  "emanations" 
and  their  ultimate  result,  Polytheism.  One  of  the 
hymns  of  the  Rig-veda  (according  to  Professor  Max 
Muller)  explains  with  singular  clearness  the  progress 
of  this  change,  in  the  words,  ' '  The  wise  men  give 

*  Gen.  ix.  25,  26. 


14  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

many  names  to  the  Being  who  is  One."  Sacrifices 
to  please  or  propitiate  the  powers  thus  separately 
deified,  were  the  natural  but  later  developments  of 
the  Polytheistic  idea. 

The  characteristics  of  the  third  or  great  Shemite* 
race,  stand  out  in  equally  bold  relief  against  the 
dark  background  of  material  Hamitism,  though,  like 
the  other  early  races,  they  too,  at  times,  exhibited 
abundant  and  luxuriant  forms  of  idolatry.  In  these, 
generally,  we  find  a  moral  and  spiritual  eminence 
superior  to  the  best  which  the  Japhetic  races  have 
worked  out,  while  to  one  of  them,  the  Jews,  we  owe 
the  guardianship  of  that  BOOK,  in  which  alone  we 
find  religious  subjects  dealt  with  in  a  language  of 
adequate  sublimity;  the  one  volume,  indeed,  to 
which  we  can  refer  with  unhesitating  faith  as  con- 
taining, though  with  tantalizing  brevity,  all  that  is 
certain  of  the  origin  of  the  human  race.  It  is  satis- 
factory to  know  that,  though,  naturally,  the  tenth 
chapter  of  the  book  of  Genesis, — the  Toldoth-beni- 
Noah,  or  roll-call  of  the  sons  of  Noah,  in  other 
words,  of  the  nations, — has  been  discussed  in  in- 
numerable volumes,  has  been  in  fact  the  battle- 
ground of  believers  as  well  as  of  infidels,  the  main 
outline  there  traced  is  confirmed  in  all  essential  par- 
ticulars by  recent  Assyrian  discoveries.  It  is  quite 
worth  the  while  of  any  scholar  to  look  back  at  the 
interpretation  given  to  it  by  the  learned  Bochart, 

*  It  has  been  long  the  fashion  to  talk  of  the  Semitic  nations, 
languages,  &c.,  but  Shemite,  Shemitic,  is  the  correct  form.  Shem 
means  "  name,"  much  like  the  Greek  <TTJM<». 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  15 

two  centuries  and  a  half  ago ;  he  will,  I  think,  be 
surprised  to  see  how  much  of  what  that  great  French- 
man proposed  so  long  ago,  is  still  admitted  by  the 
more  complete  investigations  of  the  comparatively 
new  science  of  philology. 


CHAPTER    I. 

Cyrus — Croesus — War  in  North-east  Asia — Fall  of  Babylon — • 
Tomb  of  Cyrus — Cambyses — Pseudo-Bardes — Darius — Cam- 
paign in  Scythia — Home  at  Susa — Inscription  and  Coin  of 
Pythagoras — Burning  of  Sardis — Second  Invasion  of  Europe — 
Mardonius  and  Datis — Marathon. 

HAVING  said  so  much  by  way  of  introduction,  I 
now  proceed  to  give  some  account  of  what  we  know 
of  Persia  historically  (from  the  sixth  century  B.  c. 
to  the  seventh  century  A.  D.),  and  of  the  monuments 
still  therein  attesting  its  former  grandeur.  Now, 
first,  it  may  be  noted  that  there  is  no  mention  of 
Persia  in  the  tenth  chapter  of  Genesis,  or  in  the  Zend- 
avesta,  nor  does  this  name  occur  on  any  Assyrian 
monument  before  the  ninth  century  B.  c.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  list  in  this  chapter  places  the  Madai 
or  Medes  among  the  sons  of  Japhet,  which,  as 
Aryans,  is  their  right  position.  The  natural  infer- 
ence is,  that  those  Aryan  tribes  who  were  subse- 
quently called  Persians,  had  not  yet  descended  so  far 
to  the  south,  but  were  still  clinging  to  the  steeps  of 
the  Taurus.  A  little  later,  the  inscriptions  of  Shal- 
maneser  show  that  they  had  reached  Armenia,  but, 
as  only  petty  chiefs  are  recorded,  it  is  probable  that 
their  government  had  not  yet  crystallized  into  a 
settled  monarchy.  Later  however,  under  Sennache- 
16 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  If 

rib,  the  Perso-Aryans  had  reached  the  Zagros,  and, 
thence,  their  further  descent  by  the  defiles  of  the 
Bakhtyari  mountains  into  Persis  was  comparatively 
easy  and  rapid,  though  their  migrations  perhaps  did 
not  cease  till  near  the  close  of  the  great  empire  of 
Assyria.  The  Aryan  Medes  had,  on  the  other  hand, 
held  for  many  years  a  prominent  place  among  the 
Western  Asiatic  populations,  and  it  is  likely  that  the 
Persian  tribes  acknowledged  the  superiority  of  the 
Median  monarch,  much  as  at  the  present  day  the 
Khedive  of  Egypt  acknowledges  the  supreme  rule  of 
the  Sultan  of  Turkey,  in  other  words,  that  the  ruler 
of  Persis  was  the  chief  feudatory  of  the  Median  em- 
pire. It  must  not  however  be  forgotten,  that  Darius 
the  son  of  Hystaspes  claims  for  his  own  house,  the 
possession  of  a  kingdom  with  eight  immediate  pre- 
decessors, he  himself  being  the  ninth,  a  claim  he 
could  hardly  have  put  forth  publicly  had  there  been 
at  the  time  any  doubt  about  it.  The  Median  empire 
appears  to  have  been  established  about  B.  c.  647,  just 
when  the  adjoining  nations  were  marshalling  their 
forces  to  put  an  end  to  Nineveh,  which  had  so  long 
ruled  them  with  a  rod  of  iron ;  while,  from  this 
statement  of  Darius,  it  is  further  probable  that  there 
were  tributary  kings  in  Persis  up  to  about  the  same 
period. 

Darius  himself  asserts  that  the  first  king  of  Persia 
was  called  Achaemenes,  a  statement  confirmed  by 
the  well-known  fact  that  the  Achaemenidse  were  ac- 
knowledged as  the  leading  family  among  the  Persians. 
Indeed,  as  Professor  Rawlinson  has  well  remarked,  in 
B 


l8  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

the  East,  an  ethnic  name  is  very  often  derived  from 
that  of  one  person,  as  in  the  case  of  Midianite, 
Moabite,  from  Midian  and  Moab.  But  though  there 
can  be  little  doubt  that  Persian  history  may  be 
deemed  historical  from  the  time  of  Cambyses,  the 
father  of  Cyrus,  there  is  nothing  really  worth  record- 
ing till  we  come  to  Cyrus  himself,  under  whom  Per- 
sia takes  the  place  in  Western  Asia,  erst  held  by  the 
Shemitic  empires  of  Assyria  and  Babylon. 

How  Cyrus  attained  to  this  pre-eminence  has  been 
much  discussed ;  but  we  do  not  really  want  more 
than  the  notice  in  the  Bible,  which  is  remarkably 
clear  and  graphic  :  "  Then  I  lifted  up  mine  eyes,  and 
saw,  and,  behold,  there  stood  before  the  river  a  ram 
which  had  two  horns :  and  the  two  horns  were  high ; 
but  one  was  higher  than  the  other,  and  the  higher 
came  up  last.  I  saw  the  ram  pushing  westward,  and 
northward,  and  southward ;  so  that  no  beasts  might 
stand  before  him,  neither  was  there  any  that  could 
deliver  out  of  his  hand ;  but  he  did  according  to  his 
will,  and  became  great."  *  And  again,  "The  ram 
which  thou  sawest  having  two  horns  are  the  kings 
of  Media  and  Persia."f 

It  has  been  argued  by  Heeren  (indeed  this  was  the 
common  view  put  forward  by  writers  fifty  years  ago), 
that  the  rise  of  Cyrus  was  similar  to  that  of  many 
other  personages  in  Eastern  history,  in  fact,  nothing 
but  the  successful  uprising  of  a  rude  mountain  tribe 
of  nomad  habits.  But  the  history  of  Cyrus  implies 

*  Dan.  viii.  3,  4.  f  Ib.  20. 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  19 

something  more  than  this,  for  the  revolution  in 
which  he  was  the  chief  actor,  was  obviously  in  some 
degree  a  religious  revolt.  Cyrus  was,  we  know,  a 
zealous  adherent  to  the  Zoroastrian  faith  in  the  unity 
of  God ;  and  had  been  brought  up  at  a  court,  where 
Magism,  or  the  worship  of  the  elements,  prevailed. 
Cyrus  must  have  felt  this  yoke  a  galling  one,  alike 
for  himself  and  for  his  countrymen,  while  he  was 
doubtless  stimulated  to  greater  efforts  by  the  weak- 
ness of  the  Median  ruler,  Astyages.  It  is  also  likely 
that  he  fled  the  court  of  the  Median  king  from  a 
natural  disgust  at  the  falsity  and  frivolity  he  saw 
around  him ;  the  war  which  ensued  between  him  and 
Astyages  being,  perhaps,  at  first,  scarcely  anticipated, 
the  more  so,  that  the  Persians  of  pure  blood  must 
have  been  but  a  small  minority  of  the  whole  Medo- 
Persian  population.  The  conflict  was  indeed  at  first 
doubtful,  but  in  the  end,  Astyages  having  been 
thoroughly  beaten,  Pasargadae  became  the  capital, 
and  Zoroastrianism  the  established  religion  of  the 
now  combined  Perso-Median  empire. 

The  action  of  Cyrus  was  simply  in  accordance 
with  the  universal  habits  of  a  race  iconoclastic  in 
principle  and  in  deed.  Wherever  the  Persians  carried 
their  victorious  arms,  they  burnt  and  destroyed  the 
temples  of  their  nature-worshipping  enemies.  The 
ruins  of  the  temples  in  Egypt,  at  Sardis  and  at  Athens, 
and  of  the  statues  on  the  Sacred  Way  of  Branchidse, 
attest  the  measure  of  their  religious  hatreds,  rather 
than  their  ruthlessness  as  barbarians.  Hence  a 
natural  bond  of  union  between  the  Persians  and  the 


20  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

Jews,  as  they  were  at  that  time  the  only  nations  sup- 
porting pure  Theism.  In  aiding  the  restoration  of 
the  Jews,  Cyrus  knew  he  was  upholding  a  faith  with 
much  resemblance  to  his  own,  and  the  same  motives 
influenced  Darius,  in  completing  the  rebuilding  of 
the  temple  after  it  had  been  temporarily  interrupted 
by  the  rebellion  of  the  Magian  Pseudo-Smerdis.* 
Nor  were  the  Jews  forgetful  of  the  support  they  had 
received  from  the  Persian  monarchs,  as  they  adhered 
firmly  to  them. 

On  the  effect  produced  by  the  substitution  of  Cyrus 
for  Astyages,  of  a  Persian  for  a  Median,  history  has 
left  no  definite  trace,  perhaps,  because  such  a  change 
must  have  had  but  little  effect  on  the  bulk  of  the 
conquered  people.  Indeed  the  establishment  of  the 
Zoroastrian  system  would  scarcely  have  been  an  of- 
fence to  any  but  the  Magian  priesthood  who, 
thereby,  lost  their  occupation.  Iconoclastic  abroad, 
the  Persians  were,  on  the  whole  tolerant  at  home  ; 
moreover  the  higher  classes  of  the  Medians  proba- 
bly cared  little  what  form  of  worship  was  professed 
at  court.  That  the  union  of  the  two  empires  was 
soon  complete  is  clear,  from  the  number  of  native- 
born  Medians  whom  Cyrus  selected  for  his  generals 
and  chief  officials. 

Having  united  the  "Medes  and  Persians,"  Cyrus 
at  once  contemplated  making  his  empire  the  fore- 
most in  Asia ;  and  for  the  first  steps  he  took  he  had 

*  Ezra  i.  5;  Haggai  i.  14;  Ezra  vi.  8,  9.  Josephus,  however, 
states  that  the  building  of  the  city  and  temple  had  also  been 
stopped  during  the  reign  of  Cambyses. — Ant.  Jud.  xi.  a. 


HISTORY  OF   PERSIA.  21 

pretext  enough  to  satisfy  the  conscience  of  any 
Asiatic  chieftain.  Without  going  into  details  on  a 
portion  of  history  well  known  to  all  readers  of  Hero- 
dotus and  Xenophon,  it  is  enough  to  state  here  that, 
owing  to  the  invasion  and  ultimate  repression  of  a 
horde  of  Cimmerian  nomads  from  the  North,  a  war 
of  considerable  dimensions  had  taken  place  a  few 
years  before  between  Asia  Minor  and  Media,  in 
which  the  final  struggle  is  said  to  have  been  stopped 
by  the  eclipse  predicted  by  Thales.  The  conquests 
of  Cyrus  naturally  tended  to  fan  the  flame,  and  so 
much  alarmed  the  then  chief  ruler  in  Asia  Minor, 
Croesus  of  Lydia,  that  he  was  induced  to  seek  the 
alliance  of  Greece,  Egypt,  and  Babylon,  though, 
whether  with  the  view  of  attacking  Cyrus  or  of  re- 
pelling an  invasion  by  him,  is  not  certain.  On  the 
other  hand,  Cyrus  acted  at  once,  and,  with  the  deci- 
sion of  an  able  general,  closed  on  the  Lydian  king 
before  he  could  receive  the  sought-for  aid,  and  thus 
put  an  end,  in  the  briefest  manner,  to  the  separate 
existence  of  the  kingdom  of  Croesus,  who  remained 
for  more  than  thirty  years  the  guest  of  himself  and 
of  successive  Persian  monarchs.  Nor  was  this  all ; 
the  conquest  of  the  rest  of  Asia  Minor,  by  the  aid 
of  his  Median  generals  Harpagus  and  Mazares  im- 
mediately followed,  while  we  may  believe  that  the 
proposed  alliance  of  Croesus  with  Babylon  and 
Egypt  was  not  forgotten  when  Cyrus  had  leisure  to 
turn  against  these  powers  his  conquering  legions. 

The  next  period  of  the  life  of  Cyrus  is  involved 
in  obscurity,  and  we  know  little  more  than  that  he 


22  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

was  engaged  in  a  series  of  wars,  of  the  actual  motives 
of  which  we  are  uninformed,  with  the  Bactrians  and 
other  tribes  of  North-east  Asia,  which  lasted  for 
thirteen  or  fourteen  years.  As  Arrian  however 
places  a  Cyropolis  (elsewhere  called  Cyreschata)  on 
the  Jaxartes,  we  may  presume  that  even  Sogdiana 
fell  under  the  sway  of  Cyrus.  Again,  as  we  find 
traces  of  him  to  the  extreme  north-east,  as  far  as  the 
territory,  believed  to  be  that  of  the  Sacae,  and  also 
to  the  south-east  and  south,  in  Seistan  (Sacastene) 
and  Khorasan,  we  must  suppose  that,  at  various  in- 
tervals, he  overran  the  whole  district  between  the 
Jaxartes  on  the  north,  the  Indus  on  the  east,  and  the 
Indian  Ocean  on  the  south.  Perhaps  too,  as  sug- 
gested by  Professor  Rawlinson,  these  wars  really  re- 
sembled the  annual  out-marches  recorded  of  the 
kings  of  Assyria,  rather  than  a  sustained  and  con- 
tinuous campaign  of  many  years'  duration. 

The  most  remarkable  event,  however,  of  the  life 
of  Cyrus  is  his  conquest  of  Babylonia,  the  more  so 
that  he  appears  here  in  direct  connection  with  a 
portion  of  the  Bible  history,  which  is,  I  believe,  ac- 
cepted as  true  by  some  who  doubt  almost  everything 
else.  "It  was  not,"  says  Professor  Rawlinson, 
"till  B.C.  539,  when  he  was  nearly  sixty  years  of 
age,  that  the  Persian  monarch  felt  himself  free  to 
turn  his  attention  to  the  great  kingdom  of  the 
south;"  and,  though  the  accounts  of  this  expedi- 
tion vary,  they  may  on  the  whole  be  harmonized 
without  much  difficulty.  According  to  Herodotus, 
on  his  march  from  Ecbatana  towards  Babylon,  Cyrus 


HISTORY   OF    PERSIA.  23 

was  delayed  a  whole  summer  and  autumn  in  punish- 
ing, by  the  division  of  its  stream  into  360  smaller 
channels,  the  river  Gyndes,  in  which  one  of  the 
sacred  white  horses  had  been  accidentally  drowned  ; 
an  act  apparently  silly,  but  perhaps  intended,  either 
to  afford  his  army  the  opportunity  of  wintering  in  a 
mild  climate  under  tents,  or,  what  is  more  likely, 
done  with  the  view  of  misleading  the  Babylonians 
as  to  the  nature  of  the  proposed  attack. 

Few  details  have  been  preserved  of  the  actions  of 
Cyrus  after  passing  the  Gyndes,  but  it  is  agreed  that 
Nabonidus,  the  then  King  of  Babylon,  on  his  de- 
feat, threw  himself  into  the  adjacent  town  of  Bor- 
sippa,  leaving  his  youthful  son  Belshazzar,*  to  de- 
fend the  great  city  itself  as  best  he  could.  And  in 
this  Belshazzar  might  have  been  successful,  had  not 
Cyrus  drawn  off  the  waters  of  the  Euphrates  by 
cutting  several  canals  above  the  city,  so  as  to  make 
the  river  shallow  and  fordable. 

The  accounts  of  the  actual  taking  of  Babylon,  in 
the  Bible,  Xenophon,  and  Herodotus  mainly  agree; 
nor,  indeed,  can  we  doubt  that  Cyrus  was  aware  of 
an  approaching  festival  in  which  the  whole  popula- 
tion would  be  engrossed,  though  he  could  hardly 

*  This  name,  slightly  modified  as  Bil-shar-uzur,  occurs  on  three 
cylinders  found  at  "  Ur  of  the  Chaldees,"  by  Mr.  John  Taylor:  it 
is  certain  that  he  was  the  eldest  son  of  Nabunit  (Nabonidus  in 
Berosus,  Labynetus  in  Herodotus),  and  that  he  governed  Babylon 
on  his  father's  retirement  to  Borsippa.  The  reading  by  Sir  Henry 
Rawlinson  of  this  name  is  unquestionable ;  it  has  moreover  been 
similarly  read  by  M.  Oppert  on  cylinders  found  at  Abu  Shahrein, 
in  Lower  Chaldsea. 


24  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

have  expected  that  the  gates  would  have  been  left 
wholly  unguarded.  Babylon,  as  we  know  from  Hero- 
dotus, was  surrounded  by  enormous  walls  and  a  wet 
ditch,  while,  recently,  Nabonidus  had  lined  the  sides 
of  the  river  with  other  and  similar  walls,  the  bricks 
of  which  bear  his  name  in  Cuneiform  characters, 
moreover  had  also  added  brazen  gates  for  a  further 
protection. 

Cyrus,  then,  having  prepared  his  trenches,  quietly 
abided  his  time ;  till,  at  length,  when  the  night  of 
the  festival  came  round,  finding  the  water  sufficiently 
shallow,  he  entered  the  city  through  the  river  gates, 
which  had  been  incautiously  left  open,  and,  in  a 
brief  period,  carried  all  before  him :  then  it  was,  as 
we  are  told,  that  messengers  ran  to  and  fro  "  to  show 
the  king  of  Babylon  that  his  city  was  taken  at  one 
end."  *  When  morning  came  Cyrus  found  himself 
master  of  the  great  city,  and  a  Shemitic  emperor  had 
ceased  to  rule  in  "Babylon  the  glory  of  the  Chal- 
dees'  excellency."  Not  long  after,  on  the  surrender 
of  Borsippa,  the  old  monarch  Nabonidus  was  sent  to 
Carmania;  but  whether  as  its  viceroy  we  are  not  in- 
formed. It  is  fair  to  suppose  that,  though  Belshazzar 
was  but  a  youth,  and  naturally,  therefore,  little  if  at 
all  skilled  in  war,  he  would,  but  for  this  coup  de 
main,  have  prevented  a  town,  in  size  representing  a 
fortified  territory,  falling  so  readily  to  an  enemy 
probably  not  better  provided  for  a  lengthened  siege 
than  were  the  Assyrians  of  old. 

*  Jerem.  xi.  31. 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  2$ 

The  fall  of  Babylon  led  to  two  immediate  results : 
viz.  the  transference  of  the  ancient  Shemitic  idola- 
trous empire,  to  the  Zoroastrian  Persians,  and  the 
restoration  of  the  Jews.*  It  is  indeed  not  possible 
to  discuss  here  the  motives  of  Cyrus  for  this  latter 
act ;  which  may  well  have  been  of  a  mixed  kind : 
thus  while  he  would  naturally  have  been  strongly 
interested  in  the  only  monotheistical  people  dwelling 
near  him,  he  must  as  naturally  have  desired  to  secure 
Jewish  neutrality,  if  not  active  support,  in  the  de- 
signs he  had  already  entertained  against  Egypt.f 
What,  however,  strikes  one  as  extraordinary  is,  that 
he  did  not,  so  far  as  is  recorded,  take  any  steps  to 
reduce  Phoenicia,  though,  in  a  war  with  Egypt,  the 
resources  of  that  remarkable  country  would  have 
told  more  against  him  than  any  opposition  on  the 
part  of  the  Jews. 

Of  the  rest  of  the  life  of  Cyrus,  we  have  no  satis- 
factory account ;  but  it  is  probable  that  he  fell  in  a 
war  with  some  of  the  tribes  to  the  north-east  of  Asia, 
a  conflict  on  the  origin  of  which  it  is  easy  enough  to 
speculate,  as  the  wild  tribes  of  that  part  of  Asia,  like 

*  I  may  here  remark  that  what  is  known  as  the  "  Captivity  of  the 
Jews,"  was  the  combined  result  of  two  expeditions  against 
Judaea:  (i)  Of  that  in  the  third  year  of  Jehoiakim,  when  Nebu- 
chadnezzar was  only  the  deputy  of  his  father  (Dan.  i.  2 ;  2  Kings 
xxiv.  i;  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  6,  7),  on  which  occasion,  though  Daniel 
and  Jehoiakim  were  carried  to  Babylon,  we  do  not  know  that  Je- 
rusalem was  actually  taken.  This  expedition  is  noticed  by  Berosus, 
(2)  Ot  that  in  the  seventh  year  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  at  first  led  by 
his  generals,  but  subsequently  by  the  king  in  person  (Jerem.  lii. 
28). 

f  Herod,  i.  153. 


26  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

other  nomads,  are  almost  always  in  a  state  of  partial 
insurrection.  Certain,  however,  it  is,  that  he  died 
B.C.  529,  after  a  reign  of  twenty-nine  years,  while 
his  remarkable  tomb  at  Pasargadae,  affords  some 
evidence  that  his  body  was  recovered  and  carried 
back  to  the  centre  of  his  kingdom  or  faith.  Professor 
Rawlinson  justly  remarks  that  "  the  character  of 
Cyrus  as  represented  to  us  by  the  Greeks,  is  the  most 
favorable  that  we  possess  of  any  early  Oriental  mon- 
arch." 

On  the  death  of  Cyrus  a  conqueror  rather  than  an 
administrator,  his  vast  domains  mainly  descended  to 
his  eldest  son  Cambyses,  but  Cyrus,  at  the  same 
time,  arranged  that  his  second  son,  Bardes,  or,  as  he 
is  called  in  Greek  history,  Smerdis,  should  receive 
certain  provinces  as  his  patrimony  ;  a  plan,  in  itself 
sufficiently  questionable,  especially  in  an  empire  as 
yet  scarcely  organized,  and  one  therefore  promptly 
put  an  end  to  by  Cambyses.  Bardes,  by  his  orders, 
was  slain  by  Prexaspes,  at  Susa,  but  in  a  manner  so 
secret  as  to  lead  to  the  remarkable  impersonation  we 
shall  presently  notice. 

The  first  act  of  Cambyses  was  to  attempt  the  carry- 
ing out  of  his  father's  schemes  for  the  conquest  of 
Egypt ;  so,  to  provoke  a  quarrel,  he  demanded  of 
the  weak  king  of  Egypt  his  daughter  as  a  second 
wife.  Amasis  complied  with  the  request  to  the  letter 
but  not  to  the  spirit,  as,  instead  of  his  daughter,  he 
sent  another  damsel,  who  is  said  herself  to  have  re- 
vealed to  Cambyses  the  imposition  practised  on  him 
by  the  Egyptian  monarch.  This  was  alone  a  suffi- 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  27 

cient  pretext  for  war ;  but  four  years  elapsed  before 
Cambyses  was  able  to  secure  the  naval  aid  of  Tyre 
and  Cyprus. 

The  Egyptians  fought  bravely,  the  more  so,  per- 
haps, that  their  new  ruler,  Psammenitus,  was  largely 
aided  by  Greek  and  Carian  mercenaries;  but,  after  a 
decisive  battle  fought  near  Pelusium,  the  overthrow, 
perhaps  we  ought  rather  to  say  the  collapse,  of 
Egypt,  became  complete.  Psammenitus,  some  time 
after  surrendering  at  discretion,  was  kindly  treated 
by  the  conqueror,  and,  but -for  a  subsequent  con- 
spiracy, would,  like  the  king  of  the  Sacse  under 
Cyrus,  have  probably  been  permitted  to  remain  a 
tributary  king,  perhaps  even  as  viceroy  of  Egypt 
under  Cambyses. 

Egypt  once  subdued,  the  adjacent  tribes  of  the 
Libyans,  with  the  Greeks  of  Barca  and  Cyrene,  pro- 
fessed submission,  and,  had  Cambyses  been  content 
with  such  peaceful  acquisitions,  his  future  reign 
might  have  been  one  of  repose  and  prosperity. 
Cambyses,  however,  inherited  something  of  his 
father's  grandeur  of  character :  to  have  left,  there- 
fore, Ethiopia  and  Carthage  unsubdued,  seemed  to 
him  unchivalrous.  He  failed,  however,  utterly  in 
both  of  these  schemes  :  in  the  case  of  Carthage,  the 
Phoenicians,  as  yet  unsubdued  by  Persia,  refused  to 
fight  against  their  kindred  colonies ;  and,  in  the  case 
of  Lybia,  one  army  sent  from  Thebes  against  Am- 
mon,  perished  in  the  desert,  while  another,  led  by 
the  king  in  person,  failed  to  force  its  way  into  Nubia. 
The  only  result  was  that  the  Persians  lost  heart, 


28  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

while  the  Egyptians  were  encouraged  to  resist,  and 
that  Cambyses  at  once  saw  his  error  and  his  danger. 
The  old  king  of  Egypt,  up  to  this  time  well  treated, 
was  now  seized  and  executed ;  while  the  native  offi- 
cers were  apprehended  and  slain,  and  a  severity 
adopted  wholly  alien  to  the  usual  habits  of  the  Per- 
sians. The  priests,  as  the  natural  leaders  of  the 
people,  were  everywhere  exposed  to  needless  insult 
and  cruelty ;  Cambyses,  it  is  said,  setting  the  ex- 
ample by  stabbing  the  sacred  calf,  believed  by  all 
Egyptians  to  be  the  incarnation  of  Apis.  Egypt, 
"  the  basest  of  the  nations,"  tamely  submitted,  and 
made  no  further  effort  for  many  years  to  shake  off 
the  iron  yoke  of  the  Persians,  becoming  thus,  as 
Professor  Rawlinson  observes,  "  the  obsequious  slave 
of  Persia,"  and  obeying,  as  it  would  seem  cheerfully, 
mandates  she  had  not  the  spirit  to  resist. 

But  a  new  trouble  was  about  to  befall  Cambyses, 
the  first  springs  of  which  were,  as  has  been  remarked, 
suggested  by  the  secret  execution  of  his  brother 
Bardes :  though,  even  without  this,  his  long  absence 
from  his  capital,  a  fatal  error  in  Eastern  countries, 
would  have  given  ample  opportunities  to  any  un- 
quiet spirits  at  home.  On  his  way  homeward  we  are 
told  that  he  was  met  by  a  herald,  who  announced 
that  he  had  ceased  to  reign,  and  that  the  allegiance 
of  Persians  was  now  due  to  his  brother  Bardes.  At 
first  it  would  seem  that  Cambyses  was  himself  taken 
in,  but  he  soon  detected  the  imposition,  and  then, 
with  little  reason,  destroyed  himself  by  his  own 
hand :  Herodotus,  writing  many  years  later,  softens 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  29 

down  this  story,  and  makes  him  die  of  a  trifling 
accident. 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine  why  Cambyses  committed 
an  act  at  once  so  cowardly  and  so  foolish ;  especially 
as  he  was  returning  to  his  own  country  at  the  head 
of  an  army,  not  in  itself  likely,  one  would  think,  to 
make  common  cause  with  the  first  usurper  who  might 
set  up  his  pretensions  to  the  empire.  Nor,  indeed, 
can  we  suppose  that  his  soldiers  would  have  been  led 
to  act  thus,  or  wholly  endorse  the  legends  Herodotus 
has  preserved,  which  represent  Cambyses  as  a  mon- 
ster of  tyranny ;  Heeren  speaks  to  the  point,  where 
he  says  that  we  ought  to  be  on  our  guard  with 
reference  to  the  stories  related  of  this  prince,  as  our 
information  about  him  is  mainly  due  to  the  report 
of  his  bitterest  enemies,  the  Egyptian  priests.  There 
is,  indeed,  nothing,  as  Bishop  Thirlwall  has  re- 
marked, to  show  "  that  the  actions  ascribed  to  him 
are  more  extravagant  than  those  recorded  of  other 
despots,  whose  minds  were  only  disturbed  by  the 
possession  of  arbitrary  power" — yet  Mr.  Grote, 
generally  so  calm  and  dispassionate,  accepts  the 
madness  of  Cambyses  as  an  established  fact. 

The  tale  of  the  uprising  of  the  Pseudo-Bardes,  is 
but  another  instance  of  a  revolution,  supported  if  not 
suggested  by  religious  motives,  in  so  far  as  it  was  the 
reply  on  the  part  of  the  nature-worshippers  to  Cyrus 
and  to  his  friends,  the  high  caste  followers  of  Zoro- 
aster. From  the  superiority  in  numbers  of  the  Medes 
to  the  Persians,  as  already  pointed  out,  the  army  of 
Cambyses  must  have  been  largely  recruited  from  the 


30  HISTORY   OF  PERSIA. 

masses  whose  secret  sympathies  were  with  Magism, 
and  the  king  probably  knew  that  he  could  not  count 
on  them  in  any  direct  attack  made  on  their  ancient 
beliefs  or  practices.  Nor  can  it  be  denied  that  Cam- 
byses  himself  had  done  much,  though  unconsciously, 
to  favor  the  sedition  which  led  to  his  own  suicidal 
act,  in  that  on  his  march  to  Egypt  he  had  left  behind 
him,  as  the  controller  of  the  royal  household,  a 
Magian,  Palizeithes,  a  man  who,  once  gained  to  the 
side  of  a  revolting  faction  of  his  own  fellow-believers, 
would,  of  course,  be  of  the  greatest  use  to  them. 
Add  to  which,  the  tales  of  the  losses  Cambyses  had 
met  with  in  Egypt,  though  doubtless  much  exagge- 
rated, would  naturally  have  led  the  Magian  party  to 
believe  the  game  completely  in  their  hands. 

Herodotus  supposed  that  the  Pseudo-Bardes  was, 
like  the  young  man  he  personated,  really  named 
Smerdis ;  but  we  now  know  from  the  Behistan  in- 
scription that  his  name  was  Gomates.  Naturally  the 
foolish  self-murder  of  Cambyses  gave  renewed  hopes 
to  the  conspirators,  and  when  some  time  had  elapsed, 
and  no  discovery  had  been  made,  bolder  steps  were 
adopted,  and  the  new  reign  was  inaugurated  by  a 
measure  sure  to  be  popular,  the  remission  of  all  the 
taxes  for  three  years :  then,  following  the  usual 
Oriental  custom,  the  Pseudo-Bardes  married  all  the 
wives  of  his  predecessor;  at  the  same  time,  to  prevent 
intercommunication  between  these  ladies,  giving  to 
each  one  a  separate  establishment. 

His  next  step  was  to  overthrow  the  existing  system 
of  religion,  by  destroying  the  Zoroastrian  temples 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  3! 

and  establishing  Magian  rites  in  the  place  of  the 
former  ceremonies ;  a  change  not  unlikely  to  have 
found  favor  with  many,  probably  with  the  majority 
of  the  mixed  population ;  but  it  must  at  the  same 
time  be  remembered  that  the  Pseudo-Bardes  was 
himself  a  Persian  not  a  Mede,  and  therefore  that  his 
usurpation  was  not  a  Median  revolt,  as  some  writers 
like  Heeren,  Grote,  and  Niebuhr  have  supposed.* 

But  a  system  of  complete  isolation  (for  the  Pseudo- 
Bardes  neither  left  his  palace,  nor  admitted  even  the 
highest  of  his  nobles  into  it),  must  sooner  or  later 
have  aroused  the  suspicion  that  all  was  not  right  at 
Court.  At  length,  some  of  the  leading  Persians 
began  to  take  counsel  together,  and  Darius,  the  son 
of  Hystaspes,  was  acknowledged  as  their  leader.  We 
have  no  details  of  what  took  place,  except  that  the 
conspirators  were  successful,  the  impostor  being 
slain,  according  to  Darius's  own  account,  in  Media; 
Darius  adds  that  he  proceeded  himself,  at  once,  to 
the  capital  (probably)  Ecbatana,  with  his  head,  and 
caused  a  general  assassination  of  all  the  Magi  that 
could  be  found,  an  event  subsequently  recorded  by 
an  annual  festival  called  the  "  Magophonia "  or 
"Slaughter  of  the  Magi."  In  the  more  essential 
parts  of  this  story,  Herodotus  agrees  with  Darius's 
own  narrative  on  his  inscription,  and .  where  he 

*  The  usurpation  of  the  Pseudo-Bardes  checked  for  a  while  the 
carrying  out  of  the  decree  of  Cyrus  for  the  rebuilding  of  the  temple 
of  Jerusalem  ;  and  the  Samaritans  were  able  to  persuade  the  usur- 
per to  counter-order  these  works,  and  to  make  "  the  Jews  to  cease, 
by  force  and  power."  (Ezra  iv.  23). 


32  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

varies  from  it,  this  variation  is  probably  due  to  the 
uncertainty  of  oral  testimony.  Eighty  years  after 
the  events,  when  the  Greek  historian  wrote,  there 
would  have  been  but  few  persons  able  to  correctly 
interpret  the  Cuneiform  records;  while  we  do  not 
know  that  he  was  ever  himself  in  Persia,  or  saw  any 
of  the  monuments  himself.  It  has  been  supposed 
that  after  the  Magophonia,  the  principal  chieftains 
who  had  joined  with  Darius,  remained  about  the 
throne,  and  that  thus  a  sort  of  hereditary  nobility 
grew  up,  the  king  being  no  longer  the  sole  fountain 
or  dispenser  of  honor.  But  this,  I  fancy,  is  rather  a 
Western  interpretation  of  a  course  of  action,  by  no 
means  uncommon  in  Oriental  history. 

Darius  ascended  the  throne  on  January  i,  B.  c.  521, 
at  first,  as  it  would  seem,  with  little  opposition  from 
the  provinces  immediately  around  him,  but  this 
period  of  repose  was  of  brief  duration,  and  he  soon 
encountered  a  series  of  formidable  rebellions  in  many 
parts  of  his  extensive  dominions,  and  was  in  fact 
occupied  fully  six  years  in  gradually  stamping  out 
their  ashes.  Some  of  these,  though  not  all,  were 
doubtless  connected  with  the  overthrow  of  Magism ; 
but  those  of  the  greatest  importance,  such  as  the  first 
revolt  of  Babylon,  and  those  of  Assyria  and  Egypt, 
had  probably  little  or  nothing  to  do  with  religious 
matters.  In  most  cases,  personation  was  the  ordi- 
nary practice,  the  rebel  asserting  that  he  was  the 
son,  grandson,  or  lineal  descendant  of  some  pre- 
viously famous  monarch.  Against  the  Babylonians 
Darius  marched  in  person,  and,  after  two  great 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  33 

battles,  captured  the  city  of  Babylon ;  in  most  other 
cases,  he  was  content  to  send  one  or  other  of  the  six 
chiefs,  as  Hydarnes  and  Gobryas,  &c.  It  would  also 
appear  that  against  the  mountain  tribes  to  the  north 
Darius  found  it  necessary  to  march  himself,  as,  though 
a  series  of  victories  had  been  duly  claimed  by  his 
generals,  it  is  clear  that  these  had  been  temporary 
if  not  nominal.  In  the  course  of  this  war,  the  Ecba- 
tana  of  Upper  Media  (Takt-i-Suleiman)  fell  into  his 
hands ;  while  the  rebellion  in  Parthia  and  Hyrcania 
was  crushed  by  an  advance  upon  Rhages.  Professor 
Rawlinson  has  pointed  out  that,  so  far  as  there  is 
any  historical  substratum  to  the  book  of  Judith,  the 
events  there  related  belong  to  this  period,  as  the 
story  given  in  that  apocryphal  book  agrees  fairly 
with  what  we  can  gather  from  other  sources.  The 
Arphaxad  taken  prisoner  at  Rhages  must,  on  this 
supposition,  be  the  rebel  Xathrites,  and  Nebuchado- 
nosor  Darius  himself.  The  Behistan  inscription,  is 
believed  to  have  been  executed  about  B.  c.  516-515, 
and,  if  so,  must  have  been  carved  during  the  period 
of  repose  which  followed  the  suppression  of  the  first 
great  rebellions,  or  in  the  fifth  or  sixth  years  of 
Darius. 

Having  reduced  the  various  revolts  that  had  so 
long  troubled  his  empire,  Darius  divided  his  vast 
dominions  into  a  series  of  local  governments,  called 
"satrapies,"*  their  number  ranging  between  twenty 

*  This  word  is  of  Sanskrit  origin,  and  the  office  was  common  to 
many  of  the  western  Asiatic  kingdoms.  Thus  Sargon  speaks  of  his 
"  chief  of  provinces,  satraps,  wise  men,"  &c.,     (Oppert.Hist.de 
C 


34  HISTORY   OF    PERSIA. 

at  their  commencement  and  twenty-nine,  as  recorded 
on  one  of  his  latest  inscriptions.  The  satraps  were  en- 
trusted with  the  complete  rule  of  their  own  satrapies, 
and  with  the  power  of  life  and  death,  but  were  liable 
to  recall  or  removal  whenever  this  step  seemed  good 
to  the  monarch.  They  were  selected  from  any  class 
at  the  king's  pleasure  ;  even  Greeks,  such  as  Xeno- 
crates  and  Memnon  being  occasionally  promoted  to 
this  office.  In  some  instances,  as  in  that  of  Cilicia, 
a  native  dynasty  was  allowed  to  bear  rule  in  its  own 
province,  while  Persia,  or  rather  Persis,  alone  paid 
no  tribute. 

The  fiscal  arrangements  consisted  chiefly  in  re- 
ducing all  dues  to  a  fixed  sum  in  money  or  kind,  but 
the  tribute  thus  exacted  was  in  too  many  instances 
neither  paid  in  itself,  nor  judiciously  collected.  Be- 
sides this,  each  province  paid  largely  of  what  it  was 
most  famed  for :  thus  Egypt  supplied  vast  quantities 
of  grain;  Media,  sheep,  mules,  and  horses;  Armenia, 
colts;  Cilicia,  white  horses,  &c.  Some  provinces, 
too,  were  much  more  heavily  burdened  with  imposts 
than  others.  Thus  in  Persia  itself,  where  water  was 
generally  scarce,  the  king  claimed  as  his  right  the 
rivers  and  streamlets,  and  imposed  heavy  fines  for 
opening  the  sluices  required  for  the  irrigation  of  the 

Sargonides,  p.  33.)  They  were,  in  fact,  like  our  lord  lieutenants 
of  Ireland,  governors  of  the  Cape,  New  Zealand,  &c.  The  same 
idea  is  implied  in  Isaiah  x.  8,  "  Are  not  my  princes  altogether 
kings?"  The  royal  title  of  "king  of  kings"  denoted  the  chief 
king  over  a  number  of  such  rulers,  each  himself  a  king.  Thus 
Belib  and  Merodaoh-baladan  were  viceroys  or  satraps  of  Babylon, 
under  the  kingdom  of  Assyria. 


HISTORY  OF    PERSIA.  35 

fields.  One  direct  advantage  was  certainly  obtained 
by  this  plan,  that  it  enabled  the  chief  ruler  to  know 
on  what  amount  of  revenue  he  could  count ;  and, 
though  the  people  at  large  often,  doubtless,  suffered 
from  the  selfish  oppression  of  the  satraps,  who  took 
care  to  pay  themselves  handsomely  while  they  pro- 
vided for  the  royal  demands,  they  secured  this  ad- 
vantage, that  the  central  government  was  directly 
interested  in  supporting  them  against  proconsular 
rapacity.  Obviously,  the  wiser  and  gentler  the  rule 
of  the  satrap,  the  better  chance  for  the  crown  to 
secure  its  demands  from  the  actual  cultivators  of  the 
soil. 

The  next  point  Darius  considered  was  the  establish- 
ment of  efficient  checks  on  the  satraps  themselves, 
and  here  he  devised  a  scheme  well  fitted  for  this  pur- 
pose, consisting  as  it  did  in  the  threefold  power  of 
the  satrap,  or  civil  governor,  of  the  commander  of 
the  troops,  and  of  his  own  secretary,  the  duties  of 
each  office  being  so  arranged  as  to  prevent  the  con- 
centration of  these  powers  in  any  one  person.  Thus 
neither  of  the  two  former  could  plan  or  carry  out  an 
insurrection  without  being  outwitted  by  a  minister, 
who  in  the  province  was  rightly  deemed  to  be  the 
king's  "eye"  and  "ear."  The  provinces,  too, 
themselves  were  liable  to  the  inspection  of  another 
officer,  who,  with  an  armed  force,  acted  directly  for 
the  king  in  the  redressing  of  grievances.  It  is  hardly 
necessary  to  add  that  the  success  of  such  a  system 
depended  greatly  on  the  personal  vigor  of  the  sover- 
eign ;  and,  hence,  that  it  rapidly  degenerated  under 


36  HISTORY  OF   PERSIA. 

the  later  Persian  princes,  till  at  length  the  same  per- 
son often  secured  all  the  three  offices  himself,  the 
satrap  then  becoming  much  the  same  as  the  Turkish 
pasha  or  the  Persian  bey  of  the  present  day,  with 
powers  practically  unlimited.  Posts,  or  rather  a  sys- 
tem of  couriers,  were  also  established  along  what 
was,  hence,  called  the  "royal  road"  from  Susa  to 
Sardis,  with  places  for  rest  and  change  at  convenient 
intervals.  To  Darius,  probably,  is  also  due  the  crea- 
tion of  the  first  Oriental  coinage ;  his  money,  of 
which  many  specimens  still  exist,  technically  called 
from  him  "Darics,"  being  pieces  of  gold  and  silver, 
weighing  respectively  124  and  224  to  230  grains  of 
pure  metal,  and  having  for  their  device  a  somewhat 
rude  representation  of  an  archer.  Moreover  we  do 
not  know  of  any  other  coins  throughout  the  Persian 
empire  for  nearly  two  centuries  subsequently  to  Da- 
rius himself.  To  his  other  great  works,  as  his  memo- 
rable inscription  at  Behistan,  his  palace  at  Susa,  his 
buildings  at  Persepolis,  and  his  tomb  at  Nakhsh-i- 
Rustam,  we  shall  recur  hereafter  when  we  shall  de- 
scribe the  principal  antiquities  of  Persia. 

After  a  period  of  peace,  which  may  have  lasted 
five  or  six  years,  subsequently  to  B.C.  516,  Darius  re- 
solved to  carry  out  two  other  great  wars,  one  to  the 
East  and  the  other  to  the  West.  It  may  be  inferred 
from  the  Behistan  inscription  that  the  former  pre- 
ceded the  latter,  as  the  name  of  India  does  not  oc- 
cur on  it :  the  inducement  to  it  may  have  been  the 
reports  of  those  who  had  accompanied  Cyrus  in  his 
expeditions  in  the  direction  of  Central  Asia.  In 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  37 

order  to  ascertain  the  nature  of  the  Indus  itself,  a 
fleet  was  ordered  to  navigate  it  under  the  command 
of  a  certain  Scylax  of  Caryanda,  and  the  fact  that  he 
accomplished  this  remarkable  feat  apparently  with- 
out loss,  proves  either  that  the  power  of  Darius  was 
well  known  in  those  remote  regions,  or  that  the  in- 
habitants were  not  unwilling  to  accept  the  king  of 
Persia  as  their  lord  paramount.  Anyhow,  we  cannot 
doubt  that  Darius  was  successful  in  annexing  to  his 
dominions  the  valleys  of  the  Indus  and  of  its  afflu- 
ents, now  known  under  the  collective  name  of  the 
Panjab,  together  with  Scinde,  its  outlet  to  the  Indian 
Ocean,  deriving  thence  an  immense  tribute  and 
opening  out  a  vast  trade. 

It  has  been  thought  by  some  distinguished  scholars 
that  to  this  trade  between  the  East  and  West  are  due 
certain  ancient  alphabets  found  chiefly  on  the  rocks 
in  the  west  and  south-west  of  India,  with  inscrip- 
tions on  them  of  a  date  as  early  as  250  B.C.  ;  and  it 
cannot  be  denied  that  there  is  much  probability  in 
favor  of  this  view,  especially  as  the  evidence  of  a 
more  remote  alphabet  of  unquestionably  Indian  in- 
vention is,  as  yet,  somewhat  doubtful.  The  cha- 
racters on  these  inscriptions  exhibit,  as  has  been 
fully  shown  by  James  Prinsep  and  Prof.  A.  Weber, 
a  striking  resemblance  to  the  earliest  Phoenician  al- 
phabet, and  may  naturally  have  been  adopted  from 
the  necessities  of  a  trade  which,  from  the  time  of 
Solomon,  and,  possibly,  still  earlier  than  he,  was 
carried  on  along  the  shores  of  the  Indian  Ocean, 
from  the  mouths  of  the  Indus  to  the  Gulf  of  Akaba. 


38  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

Of  Darius's  next  expedition,  that  against  Thrace, 
we  have  ample  details,  the  whole  narrative  indica- 
ting a  well-considered  scheme  rather  than  an  insane 
and  foolish  plan  of  mere  aggression.  Besides  this, 
we  may  fairly  suppose  that  Darius  had  clearly  in  his 
memory  the  Cimmerian  inroad  of  a  century  before  ; 
and  that  he  may  have  judged  it  well  to  ascertain  for 
himself  the  real  nature  of  the  populations  who  sup- 
plied such  hordes,  and  at  the  same  time  to  let  them 
see  how  great  his  power  really  was.  Again,  as  we 
know  that  he  had  some  time  previously  despatched 
one  Democedes  on  a  cruise  from  Sidon  to  Europe, 
and  that  this  officer  actually  went  as  far  as  Crotona, 
we  may  be  sure  that  he  had  thereby  acquired  some 
knowledge  of  the  characteristics  of  the  climate,  pro- 
ductions, and  material  wealth  of  the  Greek  nations 
to  the  West.  Anyhow,  the  expedition  into  Scythia, 
as  far  North,  Professor  Rawlinson  thinks,  as  the 
fiftieth  parallel,  can  hardly  have  been  merely  a  raid. 
Nay,  more  than  this,  as  Darius  was  at  this  time 
master  of  the  whole  of  Asia  Minor,  it  may  have 
seemed  to  him  a  wise  policy  to  annex  to  his  do- 
minions a  tract  of  land  in  Europe,  on  which  side  his 
empire  was  peculiarly  vulnerable.  His  careful  pre- 
cautions are  further  shown,  by  his  despatching  Aria- 
ramnes,  the  satrap  of  Cappadocia,  across-  the  Black 
Sea  with  a  small  fleet,  to  examine  the  Scythian 
coasts,  a  commission  he  so  successfully  performed 
that  even  the  brother  of  the  Scythian  king  was  car- 
ried off,  and  much  valuable  information  obtained. 

Darius  then,  with  the  aid  of  the  Asiatic  Greeks, 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  39 

having  collected  a  fleet  of  600  ships  and  a  vast  army 
composed  of  all  or  most  of  the  nations  tributary  to 
him,  crossed  the  Bosphorus  on  a  bridge  constructed 
for  him  by  a  Greek,  passed  along  the  line  of  the 
Little,  and  crossed  the  Great  Balkan,  and  conquered 
the  Getse,  who  lived  between  that  range  and  the 
Danube.  Arrived  at  this  great  river,  Darius  crossed 
it  by  means  of  a  bridge  of  boats,  also  built  for  him 
by  the  Greeks,  and  advanced  into  Scythia,  leaving 
the  defence  of  the  bridge  to  his  faithful  Greeks. 
How  far  northward  he  actually  penetrated  is  hard  to 
say,  but  Herodotus  tells  us  that  he  burnt  the  staple 
of  Gelonus,  a  place  Professor  Rawlinson  supposes  to 
be  near  Voronej.  Thence  he  fell  back  on  his  bridge, 
re-crossed  the  Danube  and  the  Dardanelles,  and  re- 
turned to  Sardis,  leaving  his  general  Megabyzus  to 
complete  the  subjugation  of  Thrace  itself.  During 
the  execution  of  this  duty,  Megabyzus  compelled 
Alexander,  the  son  of  Amyntas,  king  of  Macedon, 
to  pay  tribute,  under  the  usual  Persian  symbols  of 
earth  and  water ;  and  the  principal  of  the  Greek 
cities  in  the  neighborhood,  Byzantium,  Chalcedon, 
&c.,  were  subsequently  reduced  about  B.C.  505  by 
Otanes,  the  successor  in  this  command  to  Mega- 
byzus. From  Sardis,  Darius  retired  to  Susa,  where 
he  built  a  great  palace,  the  ruins  of  which  have  been 
recently  explored  by  Mr.  Loftus. 

It  is,  perhaps,  as  well  to  notice  here  two  curious 
matters  in  connection  with  Susa ;  the  first,  that  in 
the  Koyunjik  Gallery,  at  the  British  Museum,  there 
is  a  ground  plan  or  map  of  a  town,  in  the  centre  of 


HISTORY  OF   PERSIA. 


which  is  a  Cuneiform  inscription,  reading — "  City 
of  Madaktu;"  a  map  older  by  more  than  two  cen- 


turies  than  the  famous  bronze  one  of  Hecatseus, 
which  Aristagoras  laid  before  the  Spartan  king  Cleo- 
menes.  This  curious  monument  represents,  accord- 
ing to  Mr.  Loftus,  with  minute  accuracy,  the  ground 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  41 

plan  of  the  ancient  capital  of  Susa,  as  laid  open  by 
his  excavations.  "The  large  mound,"  says  he, 
"on  the  left  of  the  sculpture,  is  without  doubt  the 
great  mound  or  citadel,  the  smaller  mound,  the 
palace,  while  the  town  with  its  walls  and  date  trees', 
exactly  corresponds  with  the  low  eastern  ruins."* 

Now,  although  the  reading  of  the  name  "Ma- 
daktu,"  is  accepted  by  all  Cuneiform  scholars,  and 
probably  represents  a  place  named  Badaca,  about 
twenty-five  miles  from  Susa,  I  do  not  see  how  we  can 
ignore  altogether  Mr.  Loftus's  distinct  identification : 
I  am,  inclined,  therefore,  to  think  that  the  sculptor, 
himself  probably  an  Assyrian,  has,  in  error,  engraved 
on  it  "Madaktu,"  instead  of  "Susa." 

Mr.  Loftus  at  the  same  time  found  among  the 
ruins  of  Susa,  a  curious  Greek  Inscription,  bearing 
the  name  of  Pythagoras :  the  accompanying  woodcut 
(from  the  paper  impression,  given  to  me  by  Mr. 
Loftus),  exhibits  the  inscription  as  found,  built  in, 
topsy-turvy,  and  forming  the  base  of  a  later  column : 


Inscription  of  Pythagoras. 

IIY0ArOPA2    API2TAPXOT 

2i2MATO«J>TAA3     APPENEIAHN 

APPENEIAOY     TON      2TPATHTON 

TH2    20T2IANH2    TON    EAYTOY    *IAON 

*  Chaldaea  and  Susiana,  p.  423. 


42  HISTORY  OF   PERSIA. 

It  may  be  translated — "Pythagoras,  son  of  Aristar- 
chus,  captain  of  the  body-guard ;  (in  honor  of)  his 
friendj  Arreneides,  the  son  of  Arreneides,  governor 
of  Susiana."  Both  these  officers  were,  we  may  pre- 
sume, Greeks  in  the  service  of  the  king  of  Persia; 
and  the  form  of  the  letters  on  the  inscription  suit 
well  with  a  period  not  long  antecedent  to  Alexander 
the  Great.  Most  remarkably,  there  is  in  the  British 
Museum  a  Persian  silver  daric,  with  the  same  Greek 
name,  Pythagoras ;  the  only  specimen  of  Persian 
money  yet  met  with,  bearing  any  inscription. 

I  have  had  this  coin  engraved  here,  inasmuch  as 
it  affords  a  good  representation  of  the  usual  type  of 
the  daric — that  is  of  those  "Archers"  of  which  we 
hear  so  much  in  Greek  History,  subsequently  to  the 
Retreat  of  the  Ten  Thousand,  and  because  it  is  likely 
that  this  individual  coin  was  struck  to  pay  the 
Greek  mercenaries  whom  Pythagoras  commanded. 


Coin  of  Pythagoras. 

In  his  delightful  residence  at  Susa  Darius  appa- 
rently remained  for  several  years,  nor  would  perhaps 
have  undertaken  any  further  expedition  against  the 
"Isles  of  the  West,"  had  he  not  been  roused  from 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  43 

his  repose   by  events  to  which  we  shall  now  call 
attention. 

The  great  Ionian  revolt,  which  ultimately  led  to 
the  two  Persian  invasions  of  Greece,  really  sprang 
out  of  a  comparatively  petty  quarrel  between  Arista- 
goras  of  Miletus  and  a  Persian  general  named  Mega- 
bates  ;  the  result  being  a  general  uprising  in  all  the 
Greek  cities  of  Asia  Minor  against  their  Persian 
rulers,  and  the  almost  universal  overthrow  of  the 
Persian  authority.  The  first  outbreak  was  confined 
to  the  cities  of  Ionia  and  ^Eolis,  but  as  it  was  soon 
seen  that  they  could  not  stand  alone,  help  was 
sought  from  Greece,  but  given  with  a  grudging  hand, 
even  by  Athens,  while  Sparta  gave  none.  The  chief 
early  event  of  the  outbreak  was  the  capture  and 
burning  of  Sardis,  the  western  capital  of  the  great 
king's  empire.  So  daring  a  deed  could  not  be  left 
unavenged :  moreover  the  flames  of  rebellion  soon 
included  many  places  far  distant  from  one  another, 
and  but  little  interested  in  the  causes  that  had  led 
to  the  first  insurrection.  Sending,  therefore,  an 
efficient  force,  Darius  gradually  reconquered  each 
place,  defeated  the  Ionian  fleet  utterly  in  the  battle 
of  Lade,  and  retook  Miletus,  the  Greeks  having  to 
rue  the  day  when  they  allowed  themselves  to  enter- 
tain the  wild  schemes  of  Aristagoras ;  moreover,  the 
character  of  the  outbreak  naturally  led  Darius  to 
plan  a  further  attack  on  his  own  part,  in  which  he 
hoped  to  make  an  example  of  those  European 
powers  who  had  thought  fit  to  help  their  Asiatic 
brethren. 


44  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

For  this  purpose  Mardonius,  the  son  of  Gobryas, 
and  the  son-in-law  of  Darius,  was  ordered  to  advance 
with  a  powerful  force  by  the  way  of  Thrace,  Mace- 
donia and  Thessaly,  against  Eretria  and  Athens.  On 
his  way,  by  doing  all  he  could  to  conciliate  the 
Greeks  of  the  towns  themselves,  and  by  permitting 
the  people  to  establish  democratic  councils  in  the 
place  of  "  tyrants,"  Mardonius  was  at  first  completely 
successful,  in  that  he  captured  Thasos  and  its  gold 
mines,  and  reduced  Macedonia  to  the  status  of  a 
Persian  province  :  but  here  his  good  fortune  deserted 
him :  the  elements  fought  on  the  side  of  the  Greeks, 
and,  on  attempting  to  round  Mount  Athos,  300  of 
his  ships  and  20,000  of  his  men  found  a  watery  grave; 
more  than  this,  he  suffered  further  heavy  loss  by  the 
night  attack  of  the  Thracian  tribe  of  the  Brigse,  the 
result  being  his  retreat  into  Asia  Minor  dispirited  at 
his  losses.  But  Darius  himself  was  not  so  easily  cast 
down;  a  fresh  army  under  Datis  was  collected,  and 
a  direct  descent  was  made  two  years  afterwards  upon 
Eretria  and  Attica.  The  glorious  victory  of  Marathon 
was  the  reply  of  the  Greeks,  under  Miltiades,  to  this 
second  attack  upon  their  liberties.  The  loss  Darius 
suffered  in  the  failure  of  these  two  great  invasions 
must  have  been  very  severe  even  to  a  king,  at  that 
time,  of  almost  unlimited  resources ;  but  he  was  not, 
apparently,  appalled  by  these  misfortunes.  A  third 
invasion  was  planned,  and  simultaneously  with  it, 
one  against  Egypt,  to  be  led  in  person  by  Darius, 
but,  before  all  the  preparations  could  be  completed, 
he  himself  was  dead. 


HISTORY   OF  PERSIA.  45 

Darius  died  B.C.  486,  after  a  reign  of  thirty-five 
years,  and  was  immediately  succeeded  by  Xerxes,  his 
son  by  Atossa. 

The  position  of  Persia  when  Darius  died  is  the 
best  evidence  of  administrative  abilities,  which  have 
been  rather  unduly  estimated  by  some  writers  of 
eminence.  It  is  clear  that  if  Cyrus  deserves  the  title 
of  the  actual  founder  of  the  empire,  in  that  he  was 
the  first  to  conquer  a  large  portion  of  the  territory 
his  successors  ruled,  Darius  more,  that  he  welded  it 
into  a  consistent  and  well-working  machine,  which, 
indeed,  it  was  no  fault  of  Cyrus  that  he  had  been 
compelled  to  leave  in  the  rough.  Though  as  a  war- 
rior unquestionably  inferior  to  Cyrus,  and  in  other 
respects  scarcely  so  grand  a  character,  Darius  de- 
serves, as  Professor  Rawlinson  has  remarked,  "  the 
credit  of  energy,  vigor,  foresight,  and  judicious 
management  in  his  military  expeditions,  of  prompt- 
ness in  resolving,  and  ability  in  executing,  of  discri- 
mination in  the  selection  of  his  generals,  and  of  a 
power  of  combination  not  often  found  in  Oriental 
commanders. ' ' 


CHAPTER    II. 

Xerxes — Canal  of  Athos — Thermopylae—  Salamis — Artaxerxes  I. 
— Darius  II. — Artaxerxes  II. — Cyrus  the  Younger — Artaxerxes 
III.  (Ochus) — Darius  III. — Alexander— Graneikus — Issus — Visit 
to  Jerusalem — Arbela. 

XERXES,*  who  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  Darius 
B.C.  486,  was  not  his  eldest  son;  he  was,  however, 
the  son  born  to  him  while  actually  king,  and  further, 
by  his  mother,  Atossa,  the  lineal  descendant  of  Cy- 
rus. As  a  man  of  easy  temper  and  luxurious  habits, 
he  was  at  first  disinclined  to  take  up  the  two  wars 
his  father  had  bequeathed  to  him ;  and  would  have 
preferred  limiting  himself  to  the  re-subjugation  of 
Egypt.  Such  a  plan  was  not,  however,  agreeable  to 
the  young  nobles  about  him,  still  less  to  Mardonius, 
who  was  naturally  anxious  to  retrieve  his  past  ill-luck. 
Add  to  which,  there  were  Greek  traitors  at  his  Court, 
to  spur  him  on,  careless  what  misery  they  caused 
their  own  country,  so  only  their  own  base  revenges 
were  gratified.  Thus  the  Peisistratidse  sought  rein- 
statement at  Athens,  and  Demaratus  at  Sparta ;  the 
general  effect  being,  that  Xerxes  was  led  to  suppose 
he  had  actually  a  party  in  Greece  who  would  support 

*  As  Ahasuerus  is  the  natural  Hebrew  form  of  the  Persian 
Khshayarsha,  it  is  probable  that  Xerxes  is  the  Monarch  of  the 
book  of  Esther. 

46 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  47 

him  for  his  own  sake.  Before,  however,  he  was  pre- 
pared to  throw  his  whole  weight  against  Greece,  he 
resolved  to  crush  two  minor  revolts,  one,  that  of  the 
Egyptians,  the  other,  that  of  the  Babylonians.  Both 
actions  were  quickly  executed.  Supple  Egypt  had 
to  groan  under  greatly  increased  burdens,  and 
Babylon  to  mourn  the  ruin  of  the  great  temple  of 
Nebuchadnezzar  and  of  many  other  of  her  most 
precious  shrines. 

Four  years  altogether  were  spent  in  prodigious 
preparations,  apparently  not  without  much  judgment 
and  foresight ;  thus  it  was  resolved  to  throw  a  solid 
bridge  across  the  Hellespont,  and  to  cut  through  the 
promontory  of  Mount  Athos.  It  will  be  recollected 
that  it  was  at  one  time  the  fashion  to  doubt  (as  did 
Juvenal,  perhaps  only  because  it  suited  his  theme  at 
the  time  he  was  writing)  the  truth  of  the  cutting  a 
ship-canal  through  the  narrow  neck  which  connects 
Athos  with  the  mainland  :  but  this  matter  has  been 
completely  set  at  rest  by  the  recent  careful  surveys 
of  Captain  Spratt,  R.  N.,  who.states  that  the  canal 
is  about  2500  yards  long,  and  still,  occasionally,  in 
some  places  full  of  water.  The  modern  name  of 
the  peninsula,  Provlaka,  in  fact,  confirms  the  general 
evidence  for  the  truth  of  the  story,  as  this  name  is 
evidently  from  TtpoabkaZ,  "  in  front  of  the  furrow  or 
canal."  That  the  sea  was  an  enemy  with  which 
Persian  ships  could  not  as  yet  satisfactorily  cope,  is 
no  less  clear  from  the  losses  Xerxes  sustained,  in 
spite  of  his  canal,  along  the  opposite  coast  of  Mag- 
nesia in  Asia  Minor.  Nor,  indeed,  need  either  the 


4°  HISTORY   OF  PERSIA. 

canal  or  the  bridge  be  cited,  as  they  have  been 
sometimes,  as  though  they  were  instances  of  mere 
vain-glory ;  on  the  contrary,  both  were  certainly 
suggested  by  previously  acquired  experience.  The 
bridge  must  have  been  of  great  strength  to  allow  of 
such  a  host  passing  over  it  in  seven  days ;  indeed, 
^Eschylus  calls  it  ddts^a,  a  solid  road,  rather  than  a 
bridge.  The  builders,  however,  of  the  mounds  of 
Susa,  would  have  thought  little  enough  of  either 
work.  Nor,  indeed,  is  there  any  reason  for  suspect- 
ing any  essential  error  in  the  narrative  of  Hero- 
dotus, and  the  account  he  gives  may  be  taken  as 
substantially  true :  for  many  persons  must  have  been 
alive  when  he  wrote,  only  forty  years  after  these 
events,  who  could  and  would  have  contradicted  him, 
had  his  history  been  grossly  inaccurate. 

Xerxes,  after  passing  the  winter  at  Sardis,  ad- 
vanced to  the  Hellespont,  whither  he  had  already 
directed  the  different  contingents  of  his  vast  army 
to  converge.  Though  the  numbers  given  by  Hero- 
dotus doubtless  exceed  the  reality,  the  actual  contri- 
butions of  forty-seven  or  forty-nine  associated  pro- 
vinces must  have  produced  an  enormous  multitude. 
Moreover,  this  estimate  no  doubt  includes  every 
one ;  not  merely  the  fighting  men,  but  the  harem 
and  its  numerous  attendants,  the  sutlers  and  camp 
followers.  In  the  history  of  any  of  the  great  Asiatic 
invaders,  Timur,  Mahmud  of  Ghazna,  Baber  or 
Nadir  Shah,  numbers  are  mentioned  which  sound 
prodigious  by  the  side  of  the  largest  European 
armies ;  and  yet  a  million  is  given  for  the  host  that 


HISTORY  OF   PERSIA.  49 

started  on  the  first  and  most  disastrous  of  the  Cru- 
sades, and  the  same  number  were  under  arms  to 
protect  the  peace  (!)  just  before  Napoleon's  escape 
from  Elba:  as  Professor  Rawlinson  justly  observes, 
"  figures  in  the  mouth  of  an  Oriental  are  vague  and 
almost  unmeaning — armies  are  never  really  counted." 
There  is  no  such  thing  as  a  fixed  and  definite 
"strength"  of  a  division,  or  of  a  "battalion." 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  each  contingent  of 
this  vast  armament  came  equipped  in  its  national  dress 
and  arms  and  under  its  own  commander ;  while  the 
king  himself  was  surrounded  by  a  picked  body  of 
Persians,  "the  immortals,"  consisting  of  10,000 
foot,  the  best  and  the  bravest  of  his  own  native 
soldiers.  The  army  appears  to  have  advanced  in 
three  divisions,  from  Sardis  to  the  Hellespont,  partly 
along  the  shore  and  partly  inland,  and  to  have  oc- 
cupied Northern  Greece  almost  without  opposition. 
Some  minor  incidents  occurred  on  the  way,  such  as  a 
trial  of  seamanship,  in  which  the  Sidonians  proved 
themselves  the  best ;  and  some  losses  from  thunder- 
storms, and  from  lions  who,  descending  from  the 
Thessalian  hills,  devoured  some  of  the  baggage 
horses.  All  the  Greek  states,  with  the  exception  of 
Athens  and  Sparta,  at  once  succumbed,  and  sent 
messengers  to  Xerxes,  bearing  earth  and  water,  the 
symbols  of  their  submission :  while  the  handful  of 
brave  men  who  resolved  to  resist  the  invasion,  find- 
ing their  proposed  positions  in  the  Thessalian  hills 
could  be  easily  turned,  fell  back  on  Thermopylae. 
They,  perhaps,  did  not  reflect  that  the  troops  of 

D 


JO  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

Media  and  Persia  were  many  of  them  as  much 
mountaineers  as  themselves,  and  that  scrambling  over 
Pelion  or  Ossa  was  child's  play  after  what  they  had 
experienced  at  home. 

The  position  of  Thermopylae  was  well  chosen,  its 
defenders  at  first  feeling  sure  of  holding  it  against 
any  odds ;  indeed  during  the  whole  of  the  first  day 
the  Persians  were  driven  back  with  very  heavy  loss. 
But  treachery  did  what  numbers  could  not  accom- 
plish. A  mountain  track  was  found,  and  led  by  a 
native,  picked  men  of  the  Persian  army  were  able, 
under  the  shelter  of  a  dark  night,  to  cross  behind  the 
Greeks,  so  that  on  the  following  morning  they  found 
themselves  between  two  fires.  The  result  could  not 
then  have  been  long  doubtful,  but  to  the  immortal 
fame  of  one  small  band,  Leonidas  and  his  Spartans 
disdained  to  fly,  and  perished  to  a  man.  The  Persian 
host  then  pressed  onward,  the  rest  of  the  Greek  army 
in  dismay,  doubt,  and  irresolution,  making  scarcely 
any  resistance ;  Phocis  and  Bceotia  were  traversed, 
Athens  laid  in  ashes,  and  apparently  all  Greece  was 
at  the  feet  of  the  conqueror.  Nothing  remained  but 
the  ships,  and,  here,  we  might  have  expected  them 
to  have  taken  heart  from  the  experience  they  had 
gained  at  Artemisium : — yet,  even  here  it  was  long 
doubtful  whether  the  retreating  tactics  of  the  army 
would  not  extend  to  the  navy  also. 

It  is  impossible  here  to  go  into  the  details  of  the 
great  events  that  followed  and  which  fill  so  many  in- 
teresting pages  in  the  admirable  histories  of  Thirlwall 
and  Grote.  But  it  ought  to  be  recollected,  that  even 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  5! 

the  success  of  the  great  and  glorious  battle  of  Sala- 
mis,  was  far  more  the  result  of  a  happy  accident 
than  of  a  well-conceived  or  well-concerted  plan. 
It  is  certain  that  the  Greek  leaders  as  a  body  would 
have  preferred  avoiding  the  conflict,  and  but  for  the 
artifice  of  Themistocles,  which  induced  the  Persians 
to  hem  them  in,  they  would  have  fled,  perhaps  to 
Sicily.  In  fact,  the  commanders  were  still  angrily 
disputing  when  a  Tenian  ship,  which  had  escaped  the 
Persians,  came  up  and  told  them  they  had  now  no 
alternative  but  to  cut  their  way  through  as  best  they 
could.  But  when  the  actual  fight  took  place,  the  is- 
sue was  not  long  doubtful ;  the  small  but  active  force 
of  the  Greeks  being  considerably  aided  by  the  Per- 
sian plan  of  placing  their  vessels  in  lines  one  behind 
the  other,  the  immediate  effect  of  which  was  that 
their  fleet,  as  at  Artemisium,  soon  became  a  con- 
fused mass  of  vessels,  unable  to  make  any  separate 
or  individual  effort.  Thus  five  hundred  vessels 
perished  miserably,  the  whole  sea  being  covered  with 
their  wrecks. 

Salamis  was  the  turning  point  of  the  war  and  the 
grave  of  the  hopes  of  Xerxes.  This  conflict  over, 
he  at  once  retraced  his  steps,  but  he  was  doomed  to 
further  disappointment,  as  his  great  bridge  over  the 
Hellespont  had  failed  him  and  had  been  swept  away 
by  the  storms.  The  would-be  conqueror  of  Greece 
is  said  to  have  crossed  doubtfully  in  a  single  vessel, 
where  but  a  short  time  before  he  had  led  his  tens  of 
thousands.  ".Of  all  the  mighty  host  which  had 
gone  forth  from  the  Lydian  capital  in  the  spring, 


$2  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

not  many  thousands  can  have  re-entered  it  in  the 
autumn." 

But,  though  he  had  himself  retired  in  disgrace 
from  unconquered  Greece,  Xerxes  would  not  give 
the  game  up,  the  more  so  that  Mardonius  still  main- 
tained that,  with  his  300,000  veteran  troops,  he  must 
sooner  or  later  reduce  Greece  to  a  satrapy  of  Persia. 
And,  indeed,  at  that  time,  Mardonius  had  some 
ground  for  his  hopes,  as  affairs  in  Greece  were  griev- 
ously out  of  joint.  Thus  the  Argives  had  made  their 
own  petty  treaty  with  the  Persians;  Sparta  held 
aloof  in  sullen  hesitation ;  while  Athens  alone  stood 
undaunted.  But  a  change  soon  came,  the  more  wel- 
come that  it  was  scarcely  expected.  Pausanias,  a 
man  of  ability  and  courage,  became  regent  of  the 
youthful  Leonidas ;  a  Spartan  army  of  considerable 
force  was  collected,  and  in  the  great  battle  of  Plataea, 
wherein  the  Greek  assailants  were  barely  one-fourth 
of  their  opponents,  the  victory  was  complete  and 
crushing.  Mardonius,  it  is  true,  was  able  to  prevent 
the  junction  of  the  Athenians  and  Spartans,  but  each 
Greek  force  was  separately  successful,  and  Mardonius 
himself  fell. 

The  victorious  Greeks  at  once  resolved  to  carry 
on  the  war  effectively,  and,  not  content  with  driving 
the  Persians  out  of  Greece,  proposed  even  to  invade 
Asia  Minor  itself.  Indeed,  both  parties  were  now 
able  to  form  a  juster  estimate  of  their  respective 
strength,  the  Persians  themselves  admitting  that  in 
everything  necessary  to  make  good  soldiers,  the 
Greeks  were  greatly  their  superiors.  The  distance 


HISTORY   OF  PERSIA.  53 

between  Greece  and  the  capital  of  Persia  alone  pre- 
served to  the  Persians,  for  another  hundred  and  fifty 
years,  an  empire,  the  fate  of  which  was  already 
doomed  on  the  plains  of  Plataea.  The  immediate 
result  of  the  successes  of  the  Greeks  was  the  loss  to 
Persia  of  her  European  provinces,  and  the  recovery 
by  Macedonia,  Pseonia,  and  Thrace,  of  liberties 
their  early  and  tame  submission  to  the  Persians 
hardly  entitled  them  to  regain ;  and  what  was  a 
greater  misfortune  to  the  great  king,  the  decision  of 
the  conquerors  to  transfer  the  war  to  Asia  Minor. 

Thus,  at  once  collecting  their  fleet,  the  Athenians 
made  an  attack  on  the  Persians  at  Mycale,  and 
routed  utterly  the  remains  of  the  fleet  which  had 
escaped  from  Salamis;  while,  soon  after,  Cimon,  the 
son  of  Miltiades,  completely  destroyed  at  the  mouth 
of  the  Eurymedon  (B.C.  466)  a  Phoenician  fleet  of 
more  than  300  vessels  together  with  the  Persian 
army  encamped  along  the  shore,  crushing  also,  near 
Cyprus,  another  squadron  on  its  way  to  help  their 
brethren.  It  is  likely  that  these  repeated  misfortunes 
aroused  discontent  in  Persia,  for,  not  long  after- 
wards, Xerxes  was  murdered  by  two  of  his  chief 
men,  as  some  have  thought  at  the  instigation  of  his 
wife  Amestris  (the  Vashti  of  Esther),  who  might  well 
have  been  jealous  of  his  too  notorious  gallantries. 
There  is  little  that  can  be  said  for  Xerxes,  for, 
during  a  reign  of  twenty  years,  he  was  scarcely  more 
than  an  ordinary  Oriental  despot,  the  nominal  head 
of  a  Court  where  license  of  every  kind  existed 
unchecked.  The  intrigues  of  the  seraglio,  the  bane 


54  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

of  most  Oriental  dynasties,  in  his  reign  began  to 
produce  their  usual  results ;  but  the  decline  of  the 
Persian  supremacy  in  Western  Asia  was  delayed  yet 
a  little  longer. 

Xerxes  was  succeeded  (B.C.  466-5)  by  his  third 
son,  Artaxerxes  I.  (Longimanus),*  who  was  at  once 
involved  in  two  important  wars,  in  both  of  which 
he  was  successful.  In  the  first,  B.C.  460,  he  crushed 
a  revolt  of  the  Bactrians  headed  by  his  brother 
Hystaspes;  in  the  second,  he  reduced  Inarus  and 
Amyrtaeus,  who  had  thrown  off  the  Persian  yoke  in 
Egypt ;  moreover  he  had  the  yet  greater  glory  of 
humbling  the  pride  of  Athens,  who  had  sent  a  con- 
siderable fleet  to  the  aid  of  the  Egyptians,  B.C.  455. 

Peace  having  been  made  between  Athens  and 
Persia,  Artaxerxes  had  no  further  trouble  to  the  end 
of  his  reign,  with  the  exception  of  the  revolt  of 
Syria,  in  which  the  satrap  Megabyzus  showed  the 
growing  weakness  of  the  Persian  monarchy  by  dic- 
tating his  own  form  of  submission,  and  remaining 
afterwards  on  intimate  terms  with  the  monarch  he  had 
successfully  defied  in  arms.  Of  the  private  life  of 
Artaxerxes  we  know  little,  except  that  he  seems  to 
have  been  personally  of  a  kind  disposition.  He  led 
no  expedition  in  person,  and  did  little  during  a  long 
reign  to  increase  the  dignity  of  his  position  or  to 
enlarge  the  boundaries  of  his  empire.  The  peace 
with  Athens  was  perhaps  necessary,  but  by  no  means 
creditable  to  the  might  of  Persia,  while  his  condo- 

*  Artaxerxes  I.  was  the  Monarch  who  sent  Ezra  and  Nehemiab 
to  Jerusalem. — Ezra  vii.  i,  Nehemiah  ii.  1-8. 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  55 

nation  of  Megabyzus's  rebellion  gave  fatal  evidence 
of  the  feeble  grasp  with  which  he  held  the  once 
proud  sceptre  of  the  Achaemenidae. 

The  story  of  his  successor,  known  as  Darius  II., 
Nothus  (B.C.  425-4),  is  but  one  continued  tale  of  in- 
trigues, assassinations,  and  rebellions ;  the  latter  gene- 
rally quelled  with  greater  or  less  ease,  according  to  the 
amount  of  gold  lavished  by  the  royal  treasury.  Of 
these  the  two  principal  ones  were  those  by  his  brother 
Arsites,  and  by  Pissuthnes,  a  Lydian,  both  of  whom 
had  relied  for  whatever  success  they  might  obtain  on 
that  broken  reed,  bribes  to  Greek  mercenaries. 
Thenceforward,  indeed,  Persian  gold  ruled  the  whole 
of  the  Western  world ;  and  the  Persians  discovered 
that  there  was  one  thing  at  least  Greek  patriotism  could 
not  resist.  From  this  time,  all  that  was  required  was 
to  play  off  one  state  against  the  other;  in  other 
words  to  supply  each  in  its  turn,  whether  Sparta, 
Thebes  or  Athens,  with  an  adequate  amount  of  the 
precious  metal.  To  prolong  the  mutual  and  suicidal 
jealousies  of  the  different  states,  to  help  each  in  its 
turn,  but  to  allow  no  one  to  become  predominant, 
was  the  policy  of  the  Court  of  Susa,  and  of  the  great 
satraps,  Tissaphernes,  and  Pharnabazus.  "  Greek 
generals,"  says  Professor  Rawlinson,  "commanded 
Persian  armies ;  Greek  captains  maneuvered  Persian 
fleets ;  the  very  rank  and  file  of  the  standing  army, 
came  to  be  almost  as  much  Greek  as  Persian." 
Darius  Nothus,  (his  nickname  might  perhaps  suggest 
this),  was  in  every  sense  the  worst  of  the  monarchs 
who  had  as  yet  ascended  the  Persian  throne. 


56  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

"  Contrary  to  his  sworn  word,  he  murdered  his 
brothers  Secydianus  and  Arsites,  broke  faith  with 
Pissuthnes,  and  sanctioned  the  wholesale  execution 
of  the  relatives  of  Terituchmes. "  During  his  reign, 
while  the  eunuchs  of  the  palace  rose  to  great  power, 
the  central  authority  of  the  state  was  relaxed  more 
and  more,  the  principal  satraps  being  to  a  great  ex- 
tent independent,  nay,  often  holding  their  fiefs  as  a 
sort  of  patrimony,  passing  on  from  father  to  son. 

Nothus  was  succeeded  by  Artaxerxes  II.  Mnemon 
(B.C.  405),  not,  however,  without  an  effort  on  the 
part  of  his  mother  Parysates,  to  substitute  in  his 
place  her  younger  and  abler  son,  the  Cyrus  the 
Younger  of  history.  Her  plot,  however,  failed,  and 
Cyrus  retired  to  his  government  of  Western  Asia, 
with  the  view  of  accomplishing,  by  the  aid  of  Greek 
mercenaries,  what  he  had  not  been  able  to  execute 
by  the  silent  dagger.  He  had,  however,  to  act  with 
much  circumspection,  as  his  brother,  naturally 
doubting  him,  had  sent  his  satrap,  the  crafty  Tissa- 
phernes,  to  watch  his  movements.  With  the  view, 
therefore,  of  the  better  cloaking  his  designs,  Cyrus 
picked  a  quarrel  with  Tissaphernes,  and  professed  that 
he  meant  to  occupy  his  troops  with  an  attack  either 
on  him  or  on  the  Pisidians.  Having  thus  thrown 
Tissaphernes  off  his  guard,  he  urged  as  rapidly  as 
possible  his  real  plans ;  and  with  about  13,000 
Greeks,  and  100,000  native  troops,  commenced  his 
march  against  his  brother's  capital,  in  spite  of  the 
alarm  his  Greek  contingent  pretended  to  feel,  when 
at  length  they  learned  his  real  object.  Indeed,  for 


HISTORY  OF   PERSIA.  57 

a  time  even  Persian  gold  seems  to  have  lost  its 
wonted  influence,  these  courageous  patriots  having 
at  first  proposed  to  disband  and  to  leave  their  bene- 
factor to  his  fate. 

Marching,  as  it  would  seem,  by  the  Pylae  Ciliciae, 
Cyrus,  in  twenty-nine  days  from  Tarsus,  reached 
Thapsacus,  at  which  place  he  at  once  forded  the 
Euphrates ;  and  thence,  pushing  forwards,  at  the  rate 
of  about  fourteen  miles  a  day,  in  thirty-three  days 
more  arrived  within  120  miles  of  Babylon,  without 
encountering  any  enemy.  As  is  so  often  the  case, 
want  of  resistance  begat  want  of  care,  the  march 
became  negligent,  the  men  piled  their  arms  on 
wagons  or  beasts  of  burden,  and  Cyrus  himself  ex- 
changed his  horse  for  a  chariot.  All  of  a  sudden,  a 
single  horseman  at  great  speed  announced  the  im- 
mediate presence  of  the  Great  King  and  of  his  whole 
army ;  but,  as  three  hours  elapsed  before  the  combat 
of  Cunaxa  (B.C.  401)  commenced,  there  was  time 
enough,  had  Cyrus  known  anything  of  military 
tactics,  to  have  so  disposed  his  army,  as  possibly  to 
have  changed  the  fortune  of  the  day.  As  it  was,  he 
did  little  more  than  arrest  the  confusion  into  which 
his  army  was  at  first  thrown  by  this  unexpected  in- 
telligence. The  battle  that  ensued  was  clearly  very 
one-sided,  as  the  army  of  Artaxerxes  far  outnumbered 
that  of  his  brother ;  moreover,  his  cavalry  was 
greatly  in  excess  of  those  of  Cyrus.  On  the  other 
hand,  his  scythed  chariots,  though  specially  ordered 
to  resist  the  Greeks,  fled  at  their  first  onslaught,  and 
in  their  flight,  damaged  their  friends  more  than  their 


$8  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

foes.  The  actual  battle  occupied  but  a  short  time, 
ending  as  is  well  known,  in  the  complete  defeat  and 
death  of  Cyrus,  his  cause  having  been  greatly  in- 
jured by  the  impetuosity  of  the  Greeks,  who,  like 
the  Highlanders  of  1745-6,  rushed  madly  in  the 
pursuit,  unheeding  what  necessarily  followed,  the 
outflanking  of  Cyrus  himself  by  the  portion  of  the 
army  under  the  immediate  command  of  Artaxerxes. 
The  two  brothers  (it  is  said)  once  so  nearly  met,  that 
Cyrus  with  his  javelin  struck  Artaxerxes  from  his  horse. 
With  the  death  of  Cyrus,  the  war,  which  was 
really  a  mere  quarrel  between  the  two  brothers,  came 
to  an  end.  Nor,  indeed,  but  for  the  celebrated  re- 
treat of  the  Greeks  to  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea, 
and  Xenophon's  account  of  it,  would  it  have  any 
special  interest :  combined,  however,  with  the  no- 
torious fact  that  this  mere  handful  of  Greeks  had, 
during  the  battle,  done  almost  all  the  fighting,  the 
story  of  this  retreat  produced  effects  little,  at  the 
time,  anticipated,  in  the  after  history  of  the  East 
and  West.  So  far  as  Persia  was  concerned,  it  is  true 
that,  by  the  victory  at  Cunaxa,  a  dangerous  rebel 
had  been  crushed  ;  but  this  success  was  dearly  won, 
as  it  substituted  for  the  brave  and  energetic  Cyrus, 
the  weak  and  effeminate  Artaxerxes ;  and  still  more 
so,  as  it  made  known  to  the  Western  Greeks,  how 
easily  the  heart  of  Persia  could  be  reached,  by  a 
small  and  resolute  force,  if  well  led.  If  the  small 
army  originally  commanded  by  Clearchus,  was  able 
to  set  at  nought  the  daily  assaults  of  a  force  thirty 
or  forty  times  their  number,  Greeks  and  Persians 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  59 

must  alike  have  felt  that  the  conquest  of  the  whole 
Persian  empire  was  no  impossible  feat  of  arms.  It 
is  more  than  probable  that  sober  reflections  on  the 
course  of  this  war  suggested  to  the  genius  of  such  a 
man  as  Alexander  the  certainty  of  his  ultimate  suc- 
cess, in  the  great  war  in  which,  seventy  years  later, 
he  engaged. 

Previously  to  the  safe  return  of  the  "  Ten  thou- 
sand," the  Greeks  fancied  the  district  between  the 
Black  and  Caspian  Seas  and  the  Persian  Gulf,  a 
single  dominion  united  under  the  firm  grasp  of  the 
reigning  monarch  of  Persia.  They  now  learnt  that 
between  Mesopotamia  and  Trebizond,  were  wild  and 
brave  tribes  of  mountaineers,  whom  Persian  gold 
sometimes,  indeed,  induced  to  enter  her  service,  but 
who  accepted  or  rejected  her  offers  as  suited  their 
own  purposes.  Through  these  wild  tribes  (well 
represented  even  at  this  day  by  the  dwellers  in  the 
mountain  gorges  of  Kurdistan),  the  "  Retreat  "  was 
one  continuous  battle;  yet,  on  their  review  at 
Cerasus  whence  Lucullus,  B.C.  74,  sent  the  first 
cherries  to  Rome,  their  little  army  had  not  lost, 
from  all  causes,  one-fourth  of  the  number  who  had 
faced  the  Persian  myriads  on  the  afternoon  of 
Cunaxa. 

The  forty-six  years'  reign  of  Artaxerxes  is  chiefly 
memorable  for  the  suicidal  struggles  between  the 
leading  states  of  Greece,  for  the  submission  of  them 
all  in  turn  to  the  influence  of  Persian  gold,  and  for 
their  general  acceptance  of  the  Great  King  as  the 
arbiter  in  their  quarrels.  The  same  period  is  illus- 


60  HISTORY   OF    PERSIA. 

trated  by  the  wars  with  Egypt,  Cyprus,  and  the 
mountaineers  of  the  Taurus,  and  for  the  rise  of  many 
men  of  distinguished  abilities  and  little  character, 
such  as  Agesilaus,  Conon,  Chabrias,  and  Iphicrates. 
These  men  it  is  difficult  to  estimate  more  highly  than 
as  brilliant  partizan  leaders,  their  patriotism  being 
as  accidental  as  the  terms  on  which  they  fought  for 
republic  or  king.  The  immediate  consequence  of 
Cunaxa,  was  first  a  war  between  Persia  and  Sparta, 
chiefly  on  the  ground  that  that  republic  had  supplied 
Cyrus  the  Younger  with  his  best  troops;  and  se- 
condly, a  six  years'  struggle  between  the  Greeks  and 
the  satraps  of  Lydia  and  Phrygia  (B.C.  399-394),  in 
which  Agesilaus  proved  himself  the  foremost  man 
of  his  time,  alike  as  a  general  and  as  a  diplomatist. 
Indeed,  had  he  been  able  to  retain  his  command  a 
little  longer,  it  is  probable  that  he  would  have  cleared 
all  Asia  Minor  of  Persians.  Here,  however,  Persian 
gold  turned  the  balance  (thirty  thousand  "  archers," 
/.  e.  darics,  were,  as  he  said,  his  real  foes),  and  Argos, 
Athens,  Thebes,  and  Corinth,  gladly  accepted  bribes 
to  join  in  a  common  league  against  Sparta.  Then 
we  find  the  Athenian  Conon  in  alliance  with  Phar- 
nabazus,  recovering  for  Athens  her  lost  naval  su- 
premacy, and  proh  !  pudor,  a  Persian  fleet  in  Greek 
waters,  in  alliance  with  Athens !  nay,  as  if  this  were 
not  enough,  the  actual  rebuilding  of  her  Long  Walls 
by  the  aid  of  Persian  money !  The  reply  of  Sparta 
was  a  fresh  negotiation  with  the  Great  King,  ending 
in  the  so-called  "  Peace  of  Antalkidas  "  (B.C.  387), 
a  fact  truly  characterized  by  Professor  Rawlinson,  as 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  6l 

"a  mandate  from  the  Court  of  Susa,  to  which  obe- 
dience was  required."  The  advantage  to  Persia 
was,  that  the  Greeks  were,  for  the  time,  interdicted 
from  getting  up  provincial  insurrections,  while  she 
herself  crushed  the  Cypriotes,  who  had  risen  under 
Evagoras  (B.C.  380).  This  peace  further  enabled 
Artaxerxes  to  attack  the  Cadusii,  and  to  avail  him- 
self of  Athenian  soldiers  under  Iphicrates,  for  a  fresh 
descent  upon  Egypt.  Yet  neither  the  Cadusian,  nor 
the  Egyptian  war  produced  any  laurels  for  the  Per- 
sians, the  more  so,  that  in  the  latter  case,  the  Greek 
and  Persian  generals  came  to  loggerheads.  In  a 
subsequent  revolt  of  the  satraps  of  Asia  Minor  and 
Phoenicia,  we  find  Agesilaus  as  general,  and  the 
Athenian  Chabrias  as  admiral,  commanding  the 
Egyptian  forces  in  an  attack  on  Syria;  but  their  suc- 
cess, otherwise  not  doubtful,  was  checked  by  dis- 
putes in  Egypt. 

About  B.C.  360-359,  Artaxerxes  died,  it  is  said  at 
the  advanced  age  of  94  years,  and  after  a  series  of 
assassinations,  was  succeeded  by  Artaxerxes  III. 
(Ochus),  who,  in  a  reign  of  more  than  twenty  years, 
marked  by  deeds  of  singular  atrocity,  restored  in 
some  measure  the  position  of  Persia  as  a  considera- 
ble military  monarchy :  the  chronology  of  this  period 
is  difficult  to  unravel,  and  we  have  no  details  of  the 
events  in  the  early  part  of  his  reign  :  there  is,  how- 
ever, no  doubt  that  Ochus  early  contemplated  the 
reduction  of  Egypt,  which  had  been  for  many  years 
in  a  state  of  chronic  rebellion. 

In  all  the  wars  of  this  period,  we  find  Greeks 


62  HISTORY  OF    PERSIA. 

fighting  on  either,  indeed,  not  unfrequently  on  both 
sides;  thus  in  the  reduction  of  Cyprus,  Evagoras, 
the  son  of  the  celebrated  Graeco-Cyprian  king  of  the 
same  name,  commanded  in  conjunction  with  the 
Athenian  Phocion,  8000  Greek  mercenaries,  for  the 
enslavement  of  his  own  island  and  people.  In  the 
first  attack  on  Egypt,  Artaxerxes  was  utterly  de- 
feated by  the  king  Nectanebo,  aided  by  Diophantus 
of  Athens  and  Lamius  of  Sparta ;  the  natural  result 
being  that  Cyprus  and  Phoenicia  both  took  up  arms 
against  him  and  shortly  after  declared  their  inde- 
pendence. Not  long  afterwards,  however,  Idrieus 
the  Carian  and  Evagoras  reduced  Cyprus,  while  the 
Rhodian  Mentor,  whom  Nectanebo  had  sent  to  the 
help  of  the  king  of  Sidon,  drove  the  Persians  out 
of  Syria,  though  but  for  a  brief  time. 

Ochus  soon  after  advanced  against  Sidon,  with  a 
large  army,  and  having  butchered  600  of  the  in- 
habitants, who  came  out  to  make  terms  with  him, 
approached  the  city,  with  the  intention  of  investing 
it.  It  is  said  that  the  Sidonians,  perceiving  further 
resistance  hopeless,  then  retired  each  to  his  own 
house,  and  setting  it  on  fire,  left  nothing  but  its 
ashes  for  the  Persian  invaders :  these,  however, 
fetched  a  considerable  sum,  the  purchasers  hoping 
to  recover  from  the  ruins  a  large  quantity  of  gold 
and  silver.  On  the  destruction  of  Sidon,  Mentor 
readily  transferred  himself  and  his  Greek  mercena- 
ries to  Artaxerxes,  and  took  the  chief  command  of 
the  Greek  contingents,  in  the  second  expedition  of 
Ochus  against  Egypt.  The  chief  general  of  the 


HISTORY  OF    PERSIA.  63 

4 

Persians  was  Bagoas,  an  eunuch.  It  might  have  been 
supposed  that  as  Nectanebo  had  the  advantage  of  a 
country  intersected  with  canals,  with  many  strong- 
holds, held  by  nearly  20,000  more  Greeks,  he  would 
have  made  a  prolonged  resistance.  Without,  how- 
ever, making  one  firm  stand  anywhere,  he  fell  back 
on  Memphis,  leaving  his  garrisons,  half  Greek  and 
half  Egyptian,  to  be  cajoled  or  slaughtered,  as  hap- 
pened to  suit  the  Persians;  nay  more,  on  the  ap- 
proach of  Ochus  to  Memphis,  he  fled  precipitately 
southwards  into  Ethiopia.  Ochus  then  re-enacted 
the  scenes  attributed  to  Cambyses ;  but  with  a  blood- 
thirstiness  and  cruelty  his  own,  and  having  com- 
pletely crushed  out  the  last  seeds  of  rebellion,  re- 
turned to  Susa,  with  an  enormous  booty.  Bagoas 
remained  till  the  death  of  Ochus  the  chief  adminis- 
trator of  the  internal  affairs  of  the  empire;  while 
Mentor,  on  the  other  hand,  received  and  secured  the 
complete  command  of  the  Asiatic  sea-board.  Hence 
the  last  years  of  the  reign  of  Ochus  were  peaceful 
and  prosperous. 

Only  one  other  event  in  the  life  of  the  successor 
of  Ochus  (who  was  poisoned  by  Bagoas  in  B.C.  338) 
is  noteworthy,  viz.,  the  intervention  on  the  part  of 
Persia  with  the  affairs  on  the  mainland  of  Greece, 
which  may,  in  some  degree,  have  led  to  the  action 
of  Alexander  a  few  years  later.  In  this  it  would 
seem  that  the  Persians  aided  the  people  of  Perinthus 
so  effectually,  that  Philip  was  compelled  to  raise  its 
siege. 

On  the  murder  of  Ochus,  his  son  Arses  for  a  brief 


64  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

period  occupied  the  throne ;  but  when  Bagoas  found 
he  had  some  idea  of  ruling  for  himself,  he  put  him 
and  all  his  children  to  the  sword,  raising  to  the 
throne  his  personal  friend,  Darius  Codomannus,  the 
last  native  monarch  of  the  Achaemenian  dynasty. 
Of  the  previous  history  of  this  Darius  little  is  known, 
and  there  is  some  doubt  even  whether  he  was  of  the 
blood-royal.  But  I  may  remark,  as  a  curious  coin- 
cidence, that  Alexander  the  Great  and  the  last  Da- 
rius came  to  their  respective  thrones  nearly  at  the 
same  time  (B.C.  336);  the  latter  having  been  pro- 
claimed only  a  few  weeks  earlier ;  but  I  do  not  think 
there  is  any  evidence  to  connect  Darius  with  the 
murder  of  Philip,  even  though  Amyntas  (one  of  the 
conspirators)  was  well  received  at  the  Persian  Court, 
and  Bagoas,  had  he  had  the  chance,  would  proba- 
bly not  have  been  averse  to  such  a  deed. 

For  the  great  war  which  so  soon  followed,  it  is 
clear  that  Darius  was  ill-prepared ;  and  he  may 
have  reasonably  doubted  its  immediate  commence- 
ment (though,  before  his  death,  Philip  had  been 
elected  generalissimo  of  the  Greeks),  owing  to  the 
youth  of  Alexander.  Yet  observing  eyes  must  have 
perceived  that  Alexander  had  shown,  even  in  his 
earliest  campaigns,  abilities  so  remarkable  as  to  offer 
a  bright  augury  for  his  future  successes.  Moreover, 
Darius  as  manifestly  lacked  energy ;  for  had  he  but 
put  himself  at  the  head  of  the  disaffected  populations 
of  Greece  and  Asia  Minor,  or  taken  into  his  pay 
some  of  the  different  states  who  cursed  the  memory 
of  Philip,  and  hated  the  growing  ascendency  of  Ma- 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  6$ 

cedonia,  Alexander  would  have  found  arrayed  against 
him  a  host,  it  would  have  cost  him  dearly  in  blood 
and  treasure  to  have  overcome.  When,  however, 
Darius  did  at  length  learn  the  real  character  of  his 
youthful  opponent,  he  at  once  bestirred  himself,  re- 
inforced the  satraps  of  Asia  Minor  with  his  best 
troops,  and  ordered  extensive  levies  of  mercenaries. 
To  Memnon,  the  brother  of  Mentor,  a  man  of  great 
knowledge  and  ability,  he  gave  the  command  of  the 
Hellespont  and  rank  of  a  satrap,  at  the  same  time 
providing  him  with  an  efficient  force  of  Greek 
troops. 

But  though  Memnon  had  at  first  some  slight  suc- 
cesses, the  supineness  and  over-credulity  of  the  sa- 
traps with  whom  he  was  associated,  rendered  these 
advantages  a  loss  rather  than  a  gain  in  that  they  in- 
duced the  Persians  to  under-rate  the  proposed  inva- 
sion of  Alexander :  hence,  though  they  had  a  fleet 
at  least  more  than  twice  as  numerous  as  that  of  Alex- 
ander, they  allowed  the  Macedonian  king,  unre- 
sisted,  to  advance  into  Mysia  with  30,000  foot  and 
from  4000  to  5000  horse.  Nor  was  this  all :  con- 
trary to  the  sensible  advice  of  Mentor  that  they 
should  fall  back  and  lay  waste  the  country  in  front 
of  the  Macedonians,  they  resolved  as  soon  as  possi- 
ble to  fight  a  pitched  battle,  a  course  obviously  un- 
wise, though  it  is  at  the  same  time  probable  that  the 
rapidity  of  Alexander  would  have  disconcerted  even 
his  sagacious  plans.  Having  determined  on  fight- 
ing, the  Persian  leaders  selected  for  their  first  battle 
ground  the  slopes  on  the  side  of  the  small  stream 
E 


66  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

called  Graneikus,  which  flows  down  into  the  Pro- 
pontis,  from  the  northern  side  of  Mount  Ida,  a  po- 
sition judiciously  chosen,  and  not  unlike  that  of  the 
Russians  at  the  Alma. 

As  soon  as  Alexander  came  up,  he,  against  the 
advice  of  Parmenio,  gave  immediate  orders  to  cross 
the  river  and  to  attack  the  Persians  who  were  in 
battle  array  on  the  other  side,  an  attack  which  suc- 
ceeded chiefly  from  its  audacity,  for  Alexander's 
troops  met  with  serious  difficulties,  the  stream, 
though  generally  fordable,  having  here  and  there 
deep  holes  and  gullies.  The  battle  itself  was  at  first 
hotly  contested,  and  on  the  right  Amyntas  and 
Ptolemy  were  driven  into  the  river  by  Memnon ; 
the  personal  courage,  however,  of  Alexander,  re- 
stored the  day  in  this  part,  while  elsewhere  the 
resistance  was  less  stubborn.  The  Greek  mercena- 
ries it  would  seem,  fought  with  desperation,  as  men 
who  had  halters  round  their  necks,  and  it  needed 
the  full  strength  of  the  long  spears  of  the  Mace- 
donian phalanx  to  force  these  gallant  fellows  from 
the  positions  they  had  taken  up.  The  loss  recorded 
on  each  side,  of  more  than  22,000  Persians  against 
only  115  Greeks,  would  seem  incredible,  yet  his- 
torians are  agreed  as  to  this  fact :  we  may,  therefore, 
suppose  that,  as  the  writers  of  the  campaigns  of 
Alexander  were  themselves,  for  the  most  part,  Mace- 
donians, they  only  recorded  the  deaths  of  their  own 
tribe,  the  "companions,"  or  body-guard,  of  Alex- 
ander himself.  Be  this,  however,  as  it  may,  the 
Graneikus  was  to  the  Macedonians  a  complete  vie- 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  67 

tory,  and  to  the  Persians  a  defeat  peculiarly  crushing, 
from  the  large  number  of  officers  of  high  rank  who 
perished  in  it.  It  also  practically  threw  open  the 
whole  of  Western  Asia  Minor  to  the  invading  army, 
the  few  sieges  that  subsequently  took  place  being  of 
comparatively  little  importance :  in  fact,  no  other 
great  force  could  be  collected  by  Darius,  till  he  con- 
fronted Alexander  for  the  second  time,  twelve 
months  afterwards,  on  the  memorable  ground  of 
Issus.  At  Gordium,  the  capital  of  Phrygia,  Alex- 
ander gave  his  troops,  for  the  first  time,  a  few 
months  of  rest ;  but,  early  in  the  following  spring, 
he  advanced  again,  having  heard  of  the  death  of 
Memnon,  which,  at  the  same  time,  disconcerted  the 
plans  of  Darius.  Had  Memnon  lived,  there  is  little 
doubt  that  Alexander  would  have  been  attacked  in 
the  rear. 

Darius  now  resolved,  against  the  advice  of  Amyn- 
tas,  again  to  meet  his  foe  in  the  open  field,  and  to 
fight  a  second  general  action,  with  the  certainty,  as 
he  believed,  of  arresting  his  further  progress.  It  is 
remarkable,  that,  in  carrying  out  this  intention,  he 
actually  advanced  to  the  west  of  Alexander's  real 
position,  by  passing  through  an  upper  defile  of  the 
Cilician  mountain  chain ;  and  was  thus  able  to  fall 
on  the  rear  of  the  Greeks,  and  to  massacre  all  the 
wounded  then  in  hospital.  His  success  was,  how- 
ever, brief,  for  Alexander  returned  at  once,  and  the 
two  armies  met  in  the  narrow  gorge  of  Issus,  where 
even  the  comparatively  small  force  of  Alexander 
could  not  be  wholly  engaged.  Arrian  remarks  that 


68  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

"  God  had  declared  himself  on  the  Grecian  side  by 
putting  it  into  the  heart  of  Darius  to  execute  such  a 
movement" — indeed,  it  is  clear  enough  that,  if 
there  was  not  room  for  the  Greeks,  any  use  Darius 
could  make  of  his  vast  host  would  be  practically  in- 
considerable. And  so  the  event  proved.  Into  the 
details  of  the  great  battle  that  followed  I  cannot 
enter  here ;  suffice  it,  that  Alexander  was  completely 
victorious,  and  that  Darius  fled  from  the  field, 
leaving  his  wife,  mother,  and  all  his  baggage,  at  the 
disposal  of  the  conqueror.  Here,  as  at  the  Granei- 
kus,  with  the  exception  of  a  body  of  Persian  horse, 
the  Greek  mercenaries  alone  made  any  real  resistance 
to  the  Macedonians.  The  loss  of  the  battle  was 
mainly  due  to  the  fact,  that  the  Macedonians  were 
themselves  unquestionably  superior  to  the  Greek 
levies  on  the  king's  side.  Yet  these  men  fought 
bravely,  and,  availing  themselves  of  the  broken 
ground,  succeeded  at  first  in  throwing  even  the 
phalanx  into  some  confusion. 

But,  though  the  conflict  of  Issus  was  a  crushing 
victory,  it  did  not  place  Persia  at  the  feet  of  Alex- 
ander ;  there  needed  yet  another  battle  in  the  open 
plains,  where  the  Persian  ruler  could  fully  employ 
every  arm  of  his  forces,  to  show  how  incomparably 
superior  a  small  Greek  force,  ably  led,  was  to  the 
mightiest  host  the  East  could  bring  together.  Its 
real  importance  was,  that  in  it  Alexander  conquered 
not  only  the  troops  of  Darius,  but  those  also  of 
Southern  Greece.  Hence  the  implacable  enmity  to 
him  of  the  republican  parties,  many  of  whose  leaders 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  69 

were  present.  Nor,  indeed,  were  the  survivors 
wholly  dispirited  by  the  event.  Thus  Agis,  king  of 
Sparta,  collected  8000  of  them,  and  it  cost  Antipater 
a  bloody  battle  ere  he  was  finally  victorious.  Certain 
it  is  that  after  the  battle  of  Issus,  with  the  exception 
of  his  detaching  Parmenio  to  secure  the  treasury  at 
Damascus,  Alexander  did  apparently  little  in  the  way 
of  following  up  his  victory;  indeed,  he  would  seem, 
at  first  sight,  to  have  turned  aside  to  pick  up  very 
inferior  game  by  a  march  through  Syria,  a  siege  of 
Tyre,  Joppa  and  Gaza,  and  a  descent  into  Egypt. 
But  the  general  motive  of  Alexander's  actions  cannot 
be  mistaken.  No  one  better  than  he  knew  the  con- 
stant tactics  of  Persia  during  the  previous  century, 
or  how  far  the  judicious  use  of  Persian  gold  might 
avail  to  arrest  his  advance:  hence,  he  must  have 
seen  that  Tyre  unreduced  was  a  thorn  in  his  side, 
and,  further,  that  the  fall  of  Tyre  would  involve 
that  of  Egypt.  These  two  places  once  secured,  the 
paralyzing  of  his  enemies  in  Greece  was  certain,  de- 
pendent as  they  were  on  the  aid  of  a  Tyrian  fleet. 
Thus,  though  the  battle  of  Issus  was  fought  in  No- 
vember B.C.  333,  Alexander  devoted  fully  twenty 
months  to  the  reduction  of  Phoenicia,  the  sieges  of 
Tyre  and  Gaza,*  the  occupation  of  Egypt  and  the 

*  It  was  after  the  siege  of  Gaza  that  Alexander  paid  the  visit  to 
Jerusalem  about  which  there  has  been  so  much  discussion.  Yet 
such  a  journey  and  his  acts  there  agree  faithfully  with  his  usual 
practices  elsewhere.  A  sacrifice  in  the  temple  according  to  the 
Jewish  rites  was  only  one  other  form  of  his  invariable  habit  of 
"  paving  the  highest  reverence  to  the  gods  of  every  nation."  Alex- 
ander did  not,  however,  for  this  reason,  adopt  Judaism,  as  Bona- 


70  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

visit  to  the  oasis  and  temple  of  Jupiter  Ammon. 
The  wisdom  of  this  course  is,  indeed,  self-evident. 
By  depriving  Persia  of  Phoenicia  and  Egypt  (her 
only  outlets  to  the  sea),  Alexander  effectually  stopped 
that  communication  with  Greece,  which  had  proved 
so  beneficial  to  Persian  and  Greek  alike,  and  had  no 
longer  to  fear  the  intervention  of  the  Persian 
"Archers,"  which  had  so  often  before  arrested,  or 
modified  successful  and  victorious  campaigns. 

Before,  however,  the  final  close  of  the  drama,  two 
ineffectual  proposals  for  peace  were  made  by  Darius 
lo  Alexander,  but  rejected  by  the  haughty  conquer- 
or. If  Darius  would  sue  in  person,  the  Greek 
invader  declared  he  would  be  received  with  due  re- 
spect ;  but  the  submission  must  be  absolute,  and 
Alexander  must  be  recognized  as  king  of  the  whole 
of  Asia.  Need  we  wonder  that,  even  in  his  greatest 
extremity,  the  Persian  king  declined  terms  he  must 
have  felt  personally  humiliating  ?  Both  sides,  there- 
fore, determine  to  renew  the  conflict ;  and  here,  at 
least,  Darius  neglected  nothing  that  could  place 
troops  of  acknowledged  inferiority  on  something  like 
an  equality  with  their  skilled  assailants.  In  pre- 
paring for  a  struggle,  which  he  must  have  known 
would  be  the  final  one,  Darius  collected  his  troops 
from  all,  even  the  remotest  provinces,  of  his  empire. 
Twenty-five  nations  obeyed  his  call  to  arms,  and, 
besides  the  usual  cavalry,  infantry,  and  chariots,  ele- 

parte  is  said  to  have  adopted  Islam  to  please  the  Turks  or  Arabs. 
Moreover  he  probably,  at  first,  intended  to  chastise  the  Jews  for 
their  sympathies  with  the  Persians. 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  71 

phants  were,  it  is  said,  for  the  first  time  in  Western 
Asia,  arrayed  in  the  battle-field. 

Alexander  having  wintered  in  Syria,  set  forward 
through  the  plains  of  Mesopotamia,  and  crossing  the 
Tigris  unopposed,  some  thirty  or  forty  miles  above 
Nineveh,  came  first  into  collision  with  Darius  (in 
Oct.  B.  c.  331)  near  the  village  of  Gaugamela,  around 
which  a  fierce  and  obstinate  battle  was  fought.* 
The  story  goes,  that,  on  this  occasion,  Alexander 
was  so  near  Darius  that  he  struck  to  the  ground  his 
charioteer  with  a  blow  from  his  javelin.  A  report 
naturally  spread  that  Darius  himself  had  fallen ;  but 
the  fact  was,  that  the  Persian  monarch  having  left 
his  baggage  at  Arbela  fell  back  there,  perhaps  in  the 
hope  of  renewing  the  battle :  he  was  not,  however, 
more  successful  here,  and  though  the  Syrian  satrap, 
Mazaeus,  made  a  firm  stand,  the  day  was  soon  lost, 
and  what  remained  of  the  Persian  host  hurriedly  re- 
crossed  the  Zab,  after  a  loss  from  all  accounts  pro- 
digious. The  personal  conduct  of  Darius  cannot  be 
greatly  blamed,  unless  we  accept  as  literally  true  the 
words  of  Arrian,  "  fearful  as  he  was  beforehand,  he 
was  the  first  to  fly,"  but  this  is  not  probable;  as 
Professor  Rawlinson  observes,  "  Arbela  was  not, 
like  Issus,  won  by  men  fighting;  it  was  the  leaders' 
victory  rather  than  the  soldiers."  Alexander's 
diagonal  advance,  thus  breaking  the  Persian  line, 
and  the  prompt  occupation  by  some  of  his  best 

*  The  battle  is  generally  named  from  Arbela  (Erbil),  which  is 
more  than  20  miles  South-west  from  Gaugamela,  where  it  had 
commenced. 


72  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

cavalry  and  a  portion  of  the  phalanx  of  the  space 
thus  left  open,  decided  the  conflict.  A  complete 
rout  followed,  as  a  matter  of  course,  and  Darius 
fled,  not  as  taking  the  initiative,  because  he  saw  the 
day  was  irretrievably  lost. 

The  battle  of  Arbela  closes  the  history  of  Persia 
as  a  distinct  and  separate  empire;  and  one,  too,  not 
to  be  again  revived  for  more  than  500  years:  from 
this  time,  the  crown  of  Cyrus  passed  into  the  hands 
of  Greek  or  Parthian  rulers,  and  the  native  line  of 
sovereigns,  if  not  altogether  suppressed,  reigned  over 
only  the  small  province  of  Persis,  as  dependents  first 
on  the  Greek  empire  of  the  Seleucidae,  and  subse- 
quently on  that  of  the  more  oppressive  and  hostile 
Arsacidse.  The  fulfilment  of  Daniel's  prophecy  was 
as  complete  as  possible.  "  Behold,  an  he-goat  came 
from  the  west  on  the  face  of  the  whole  earth,  and 
touched  not  the  ground :  and  the  goat  had  a  notable 
horn  between  his  eyes.  And  he  came  to  the  ram 
that  had  two  horns,  which  I  had  seen  standing  be- 
fore the  river,  and  ran  unto  him  in  the  fury  of  his 
power.  And  I  saw  him  come  close  unto  the  ram, 
and  he  was  moved  with  choler  against  him,  and 
smote  the  ram,  and  brake  his  two  horns :  and  there 
was  no  power  in  the  ram  to  stand  before  him,  but 
he  cast  him  down  to  the  ground,  and  stamped  upon 
him :  and  there  was  none  that  could  deliver  the  ram 
out  of  his  hand."* 

*  Dan.  viii.  5-7. 


CHAPTER   III. 

Daniel — Darius  the  Mede. 

BUT  any  account  of  Persia  would  be  more  than 
incomplete  which  should  pass  over  the  remarkable 
story  of  Daniel  the  Jew,  who  is  more,  perhaps,  than 
any  one  else  connected  with  the  prophecies  of  pro- 
fane history  and  of  a  coming  Messiah.  I  shall,  there- 
fore, state  here,  but,  of  necessity,  briefly,  what  is 
known  of  Daniel,  taking  the  narrative  in  the  Bible 
as  literally  true;  nor  shall  I  discuss  the  question, 
how,  if  some  of  his  prophecies  are  accepted  as  ful- 
filled, the  obvious  meaning  of  others  can  be  ex- 
plained away  either  as  the  writing  of  a  contemporary, 
but  of  an  outsider,  or  as  stories  craftily  made  up 
after  the  events  they  refer  to.  The  charm,  indeed, 
of  the  book  of  Daniel  is  that  it  admits  of  no  com- 
promise, but  must  be  true  as  a  whole  or  false  as  a  whole. 
"The  dream  is  certain,  and  the  interpretation 
thereof  sure,"  is,  to  my  mind,  a  statement  as  definite 
and  as  satisfactory,  as  our  Lord's  assertion  that  His 
own  words  are  true. 

The  first  we  hear  of  Daniel  is  his  statement*  that 
(on  Nebuchadnezzar's  first  expedition  against  Jeru- 
salem) he  was  selected  as  one  of  the  "children  in 
whom  was  no  blemish,  but  well-favored  and  skillful 

*  Dan.  i.  4. 

73 


74  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

in  all  wisdom,"  to  be  brought  up  at  the  king's  ex- 
pense, and  taught  the  learning  and  wisdom  of  the 
Chaldees,"  during  a  period  of  three  years.  Daniel 
then  tells  how  he  and  they  alike  rejected  the  king's 
proffered  nourishment  of  meat  and  wine,  lest  they 
should  be  defiled  by  eating  what  had  been  offered 
to  idols  j  and  yet,  how,  though  fed  only  on  pulse 
and  water,  at  the  end  of  ten  days  "  their  coun- 
tenances appeared  fairer  and  fatter  in  flesh  than  all 
the  children  who  did  eat  the  portion  of  the  king's 
meat."*  After  a  while,  we  learn  that  they  were 
brought  before  the  king,  and  that  "in  all  matters 
of  wisdom  and  understanding  that  the  king  inquired 
of  them,  he  found  them  ten  times  better  than  all  the 
magicians  and  astrologers  that  were  in  his  realm,  "f 
The  first  direct  proof  that  God  was  with  Daniel 
occurred  in  the  second  year  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  B. 
c.  603.  On  one  night  we  learn  that  the  king 
dreamed  a  dream,  which,  on  awakening,  he  could 
not  recall,  and  when  the  Chaldean  soothsayers  failed 
to  tell  him  either  what  it  was  or  how  it  was  to  be  in- 
terpreted, Daniel  not  only  declared  what  he  had 
dreamed,  but  explained  the  meaning  of  it.J  The 
rage  of  the  king  against  his  wise  men  is  character- 
istic of  a  man  who  detected  at  once  that  the  sooth- 
sayers were  shuffling.  "I  know  of  a  certainty,"  he 
says,  "that  ye  would  gain  time,  because  ye  see  that 
the  thing  is  gone  from  me  " — but,  "  if  ye  have  not 
made  known  unto  me  the  dream,  there  is  but  one 
decree  for  you ;  for  ye  have  prepared  lying  and  cor- 

*  Dan.  i.  15.  f  Dan.  i.  20.  f  Dan.  ii.  29. 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  75 

rupt  words  to  speak  before  me,  till  the  time  be 
changed."*  The  point  is  the  distinct  assertion  of 
Daniel  that  his  interpretation  was  not  due  to  any 
personal  superiority  of  his  own  over  the  other  wise 
men:  "As  for  me,"  says  he,  "this  secret  is  not 
revealed  to  me  for  any  wisdom  that  I  may  have  more 
than  any  living,  but  for  their  sakes  that  shall  make 
known  the  interpretation  to  the  king,  and  that  thou 
mightest  know  the  thoughts  of  thy  heart,  "f  The 
lesson,  indeed,  then  read  to  the  king,  is  the  same  as 
that  given  centuries  before  to  the  builders  of  the 
tower  of  Babel,  and,  subsequently,  again,  to  the 
king  himself,  when,  not  long  after,  he  set  up  the 
great  image  in  the  plain  of  Dura,  viz.,  that  such 
works,  great  as  they  were,  were  but  a  feeble  exposi- 
tion of  even  his  views  of  universal  empire.  Ne- 
buchadnezzar's reply,  "  Of  a  truth  it  is  that  your 
God  is  a  god  of  gods,  and  a  lord  of  kings,  and  a 
revealer  of  secrets,  seeing  thou  couldst  reveal  this 
secret, "|  is  the  honest  language  of  a  heathen, 
touched,  as  well  he  might  be,  by  the  remarkable  re- 
velation he  had  just  heard,  and  ready,  therefore,  to 
acknowledge  Daniel's  God  to  be  the  greatest  god  he 
had  yet  heard  of. 

The  result  to  Daniel  was  that  he  was  made  "  ruler 
over  the  whole  province  of  Babylon,  and  chief  of 
the  governors  over  all  the  wise  men  of  Babylon,  "§ 
and,  further,  that  he  was  permitted  to  associate  with 
him  the  three  young  Jews,  his  early  companions  in 
exile,  Shadrach,  Meshach,  and  Abed-nego.  Such  a 

*  Dan.  ii.  9.         f  Dan.  ii.  30.          J  Dan.  ii.  47.          g  Dan.  ii.  48. 


76  HISTORY  OF. PERSIA. 

position  was  one  peculiarly  exposed  to  the  envy  and 
the  hatred  of  the  native  men  of  rank ;  hence  every 
unworthy  scheme  on  their  part  to  bring  Daniel  and 
his  friends  into  disfavor  with  the  king,  who,  they 
thought,  perhaps  not  without  some  reason,  had  been 
unduly  hasty  in  the  promotion  he  had  given  to  one 
of  his  slaves.  The  trial  soon  came  in  the  form  of  a 
"burning  fiery  furnace,"*  from  which,  it  maybe, 
that  Daniel's  exalted  rank  alone  preserved  him  ;  the 
course  of  events  being  just  as  might  have  been  ex- 
pected, from  the  greatest  of  Oriental  despots,  con- 
vinced against  his  will,  and,  therefore,  longing  to 
silence,  as  he  hoped  for  ever,  the  man  who,  by  su- 
perhuman means,  had  thwarted  his  purpose.  He 
would  have  been  less  than  Nebuchadnezzar  had  he 
acted  otherwise  ;  and  his  so  acting  is,  as  far  as  it 
goes,  an  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the  whole  narra- 
tive. Indeed,  his  first  and  prompt  acknowledgment 
of  the  power  that  had  chastened  him,  is  in  perfect 
unity  with  his  character.  The  God  of  the  whole 
world  was  still  in  his.  eyes  but  the  "God  of  Sha- 
drach,  Meshach,  and  Abed-nego ;"  thus,  in  His 
favor,  the  decree  goes  forth,  that  whoever  shall  speak 
amiss  of  Him  "  shall  be  cut  in  pieces  and  their 
houses  shall  be  made  a  dunghill,  because  there  is  no 
other  God  that  can  deliver  after  this  sort."f  The 
royal  heathen  could  not  as  yet  discern  the  whole 
truth ;  and  it  needed  further  manifestations  of  the 
Divine  power,  to  enforce  his  assent  to  the  fact,  that 

*Dan.  iii.  u.  fDan.  in.  29. 


HISTORY  OF    PERSIA.  77 

the  Bel  and  Nebo  in  whom  he  had  trusted,  were  but 
gods  made  by  human  hands. 

The  account  of  Nebuchadnezzar's  next  trial  is  told 
in  his  own  words.  "  I,  Nebuchadnezzar,"  says  he, 
"  was  at  rest  in  mine  house,  and  flourishing  in  my 
palace."*  And  thus,  in  the  height  of  his  majesty, 
he  forgot  God.  He  dreamed,  as  before,  a  dream  of 
a  great  tree,  whose  branches  extended  to  heaven,  but 
which  was  cut  down  till  there  was  nothing  left  "  but 
the  stump  of  his  roots  in  the  earth,  even  with  a  band 
of  iron  and  brass  in  the  tender  grass  of  the  field,  ""f 
Of  this  dream,  Daniel  was  again  the  expositor,  and 
prophesied  how  Nebuchadnezzar  should,  for  a  time, 
lose  his  reason,  and  be  numbered  with  "the  beasts 
that  perish."  "And  all  this,"  it  is  added,  "came 
upon  king  Nebuchadnezzar.  At  the  end  of  twelve 
months  he  walked  in  the  palace  of  the  kingdom  of 
Babylon,  and  the  king  spake  and  said,  'Is  not  this 
great  Babylon  that  I  have  built  for  the  house  of  my 
kingdom,  by  the  might  of  my  power  and  for  the 
honor  of  my  majesty? '  "J 

But  the  punishment  of  his  pride  was  near  at  hand, 
the  narrative  in  the  Bible  adding,  "  While  the  word 
was  in  the  king's  mouth,  there  fell  a  voice  from 
heaven  saying,  O  king,  Nebuchadnezzar,  to  thee  it 
is  spoken ;  the  kingdom  is  departed  from  thee ;  they 
shall  drive  thee  from  men,  and  thy  dwelling  shall  be 
with  the  beasts  of  the  field :  they  shall  make  thee 
eat  grass  as  oxen,  and  seven  times  shall  pass  over 
thee,  until  thou  know  that  the  Most  High  ruleth  in 

*  Dan.  iv.  4.  f  Dan.  iv.  15.  J  Dan.  iv.  28. 


78  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

the  kingdom  of  men,  and  giveth  it  to  whomsoever 
He  will."*  Yet  was  the  judgment  tempered,  as  are 
all  God's  judgments,  with  mercy,  the  king  himself 
stating,  "At  the  end  of  the  days,  I,  king  Nebuchad- 
nezzar, lifted  up  mine  eyes  unto  heaven,  and  mine 
understanding  returned  unto  me,  and  I  blessed  the 
Most  High,  and  praised  and  honored  Him  that 
liveth  for  ever  ....  and  at  the  same  time  .my  reason 
returned  unto  me,  and  for  the  glory  of  my  kingdom, 
mine  honor  and  brightness  returned  unto  me  .... 
and  I  was  established  in  my  kingdom,  and  excellent 
majesty  was  added  unto  me."f 

It  would  have  been  of  surpassing  interest,  could 
we,  in  this  instance,  have  found  a  native  record  run- 
ning parallel  with  the  statement  in  the  Bible ;  and, 
at  one  time,  it  was  thought  by  M.  Oppert,  that  he 
had  detected  an  allusion  to  it  on  the  great  Cuneiform 
inscription  of  Nebuchadnezzar  in  the  India  Office. 
We  fear,  however,  that  this  idea  has  not  been  con- 
firmed, though  there  is  a  break  in  the  general  sense, 
and  some  lines  not  yet  satisfactorily  made  out.  The 

*  Dan.  iv.  31. 

f  Dan.  iv.  34.  It  has  been  supposed  that  Nebuchadnezzar's  ill- 
ness was  a  form  of  a  rare  disease  called  "  lycanthropy,"  in  which 
the  patient  retains  his  consciousness,  but  fancies  himself  an  animal. 
It  is  said  to  have  been  first  noticed  by  Marcellus,  a  Greek  physician 
of  the  fourth  century.  Many  cases  have  been  recorded  in  which 
the  inner  consciousness  still  remains,  and,  with  it,  the  power  of 
prayer.  Dr.  Browne  says  that  the  "idea  of  personal  identity  is 

but  rarely  enfeebled,  and  never  is  extinguished I  have 

seen  a  man,  declaring  himself  the  Saviour  or  St.  Paul,  sign  himself 
James  Thomson,  and  attend  public  worship  as  regularly  as  if  the 
notion  of  divinity  had  never  entered  his  head." 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  79 

account,  therefore,  in  Daniel,  is  at  present  the  only 
record  of  the  king's  illness  and  recovery. 

From  the  death  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  about  three 
or  four  years  after  his  recovery,  we  hear  no  more  of 
Daniel  for  twenty-three  years;  but  Jeremiah's  pro- 
phecies (histories?)  fill  up  the  intervening  time,  and 
confirm  what  we  know  from  other  sources,  of  the 
descent  of  the  kingly  rule  to  Nebuchadnezzar's  im- 
mediate descendants.* 

In  his  fifth  chapter  Daniel  passes  on  at  once  to 
Belshazzar,  and  to  the  memorable  night  during  which 
the  army  of  Cyrus  silently  entered  Babylon  through 
the  unguarded  river-gates.  Of  himself,  he  simply 
adds,  "This  Daniel  prospered  in  the  reign  of  Darius, 
and  in  the  reign  of  Cyrus  the  Persian  ;"f  in  other 
words,  he  survived  the  whole  seventy  years  of  the 
captivity,  while  we  know  further  also  from  himself, 
that  after  "  Darius  the  Mede  "  became  governor  of 
Babylon,  he  was  at  Shushan  (Susa),  doing  "  the 
king's  business,"|  perhaps  employed  by  him  on  tne 
great  division  of  the  empire  into  1 20  satrapies,  and 
thereby  in  his  old  age,  again  incurring  the  bitter 
enmity  of  the  "princes  of  the  empire,"  followed  by 

*  Jerem.  xxvii.  7 ;  2  Chron.  xxxvi.  20. 

•f  Dan.  vi.  28. 

J  The  visit  to  Susa  is  dated  by  Daniel  "  in  the  third  year  of 
Belshazzar,"  that  is,  at  the  end  of  the  third  unfinished  year,  a  mode 
of  reference  not  uncommon.  The  so-called  tomb  of  Daniel,  of 
which  Mr.  Loftus  has  given  a  drawing,  below  the  ruins  of  the 
ancient  city  (though  itself  a  mediaeval  structure),  attests  the  tradi- 
tion of  the  burial  of  the  prophet  in  that  neighborhood,  and  is  still 
the  yearly  resort  of  hundreds  of  Jewish  pilgrims. 


8o  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

their  attempt  at  his  destruction  in  the  den  of  lions. 
In  bringing  to  a  close  this  short  notice  of  Daniel,  I 
think  it  may  be  useful  to  give  a  list  of  his  visions, 
dreams,  and  prophecies,  with  the  interpretation  of 
them  usually  accepted ;  this  list,  however,  is  intended 
to  be  perfectly  general,  with  no  reference  to  any  of 
the  special  theories  of  prophecy,  upheld  or  rejected 
by  such  writers  as  Maitland,  Faber,  or  Elliott. 
Thus  :— 

1.  In  the  second  year  of  Nebuchadnezzar,*  B.C. 
603 :    The  explanation  of  the  royal  dream  of  the 
image  represented  the  Four  Great  Monarchies. 

a.  The  golden    head — the  Assyrio-Baby Ionian 

empire. 

b.  The  silver  breast  and  arms — the  Medo-Per- 

sian  empire. 

c.  The  brazen  belly  and  thighs— the  Macedo- 

nian rule  in  Asia,  Egypt,  and  Syria. 

d.  The  legs  of  iron,  and  ten  toes  of  iron  and 

clay — the  power  of  Rome,  a  mixture  of 
strength  and  weakness. 

e.  The  stone  cut  without  hands  out  of  the  living 

rock,    which    destroyed    the    image — the 
spiritual  kingdom  of  our  Saviour. 

2.  In  the  reign  of  Nebuchadnezzar,  but  of  uncer- 
tain date  : — The  interpretation  of  the  king's  second 
dream,  and  its  assertion  that  he  will  lose  for  a  time, 
but  afterwards  recover,  his  reason. f 

3.  In  the  first  year  of  Belshazzar,  B.C.  540  \\ — 

*  Dan.  xi.  32.  f  Dan.  iv.  25.  \  Dan.  vii.  2. 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA,  8 1 

The  dream  of  the  four  beasts  (generally  held  to  re- 
present four  empires),  with  the  judgment  of  the 
"Ancient  of  Days"  on  the  fourth  beast,  and  the 
announcement  of  the  coming  kingdom  of  "the  Son 
of  man."  Like  much  of  The  Revelation  of  St. 
John,  a  portion  of  this  prophecy  may  be  as  yet  un- 
fulfilled :  we  have,  however,  only  to  wait  in  patience, 
and  it  will  doubtless  some  day  be  as  clear  to  us  as 
the  fifty-third  chapter  of  Isaiah. 

4.  In  the  third  year  of  Belshazzar,  and,  therefore, 
probably  soon   after  the   fall   of  Babylon,  in   B.C. 
538:* — A  vision  at  Shushan,  in  which  Daniel  wit- 
nesses a  combat  between  a  ram  and  a  he-goat  (the 
admitted  symbols  of  the  Medo-Persian  and   Mace- 
donian empires).     The  ram  has  two  horns,  of  which 
the  higher  "came  up  last."f — Alexander  is  clearly 
the  "notable"  horn  of  the  he-goat,  and  the  four 
chief  kingdoms  of  his  successors  are  indicated  by 
the  four  horns  which  follow  it. 

5.  In  the  first  year  of  Darius  the  Mede,  B.C.  538- 
7  :  A  vision  is  seen  by  Daniel,  but  we  do  not  know 
where :    it  is,  however,  of  special    interest,  as  he 
states,  that  having  studied  Jeremiah's  prophecy  of 

*  Dan.  viii.  3. 

f  Just  such  a  he-goat  may  be  seen  on  the  sculptures  at  Perse- 
polis  with  one  "  notable  "  horn  between  his  eyes.  I  may  further 
remark  that  in  the  third  or  Greek  kingdom,  the  "  little  horn " 
comes  from  one  of  the  four-fold  divisions  of  the  empire,  which  was 
exactly  the  case  with  Antiochus  Epiphanes  ;  but  in  the  fourth,  or 
Roman  empire,  the  "  little  horn  came  up  among  them  "  (ch.  vii. 
9),  and  destroyed  three  of  them.  A  difference  so  striking  in  the 
symbol,  implies  a  corresponding  difference  in  the  thing  typified. 
F 


82  HISTORY   OF    PERSIA. 

the  endurance  of  the  Captivity  for  seventy  years, 
"he  set  himself  to  seek  God  by  fasting  and  prayer,"* 
obtaining  from  God  a  direct  answer  to  his  supplica- 
tions through  the  angel  Gabriel  f  (or  man  of  God), 
who  announced  the  immediate  commencement  of 
the  period,  the  fulfilment  of  which  the  same  angel 
afterwards  declared  to  Zacharias.  This  is  the  famous 
"  prophecy  of  the  seventy  weeks  "  (or  490  years), 
to  elapse  from  the  re-building  of  the  temple  at  Jeru- 
salem, to  the  completion  of  our  Saviour's  mission  on 
earth.  Supposing  the  commencing  date  to  be  (as 
suggested  by  Dr.  W.  Smith),  that  of  the  "final  and 
effectual  edict  of  Artaxerxes  Longimanus,  in  B.C. 
45  7,  exactly  490  years  may  be  counted,  to  the  death 
of  our  Saviour,  in  A.D.  33.  The  "seventy  sevens  " 
may  be  considered  years,  just  as  the  word  "  Sab- 
bath," is  often  used  for  the  Sabbatical  year;  the 
whole  phrase  then  meaning  seventy  cycles  of  Sab- 
batical years.  | 

6.  In  the  third  year  of  Cyrus,  B.  c.  534 : — A  vision 
on  the  banks  of  the  Hiddekel  or  Tigris,  with  a  strik- 
ing resemblance  to  that  of  St.  John  at  Patmos.§ 
Much  of  it  is  obscure,  as  referring,  possibly,  to 
matters  still  long  distant. 

*  Dan.  ix.  2.  f  Dan.  ix.  21. 

\  The  whole  of  Dan.  xi.  (in  the  first  year  of  Darius  the  Mede) 
is  occupied  by  prophetical  details,  some  of  them  of  remarkable 
minuteness,  and  in  chap.  xii.  when  Daniel  asks,  "  How  long  shall 
it  be  to  the  end  of  these  wonders?"  he  is  told,  "But  thou,  O 
Daniel,  shut  up  the  words  and  seal  the  book  even  to  the  time 
of  the  end."  And  again,  "  Go  thy  way,  Daniel ;  for  the  words  are 
closed  up  and  sealed,  till  the  time  of  the  end." 

$  Dan.  x.  4. 


HISTORY  OF   PERSIA.  83 

In  bringing  to  an  end  this  short  notice  of  Daniel, 
I  ought,  perhaps,  to  add,  that  doubts  have  been 
thrown  on  his  story,  because  he  does  not  himself 
describe  the  return  from  the  Captivity.  But  it  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  part  of  Daniel's  duty  to  write 
history,  but  simply  to  record  the  visions  he  saw  and 
the  prophecies  he  was  told  to  proclaim. 

One  of  the  results  of  the  taking  of  Babylon  by 
Cyrus  was  the  appointment  of  a  new  governor  of  it, 
called  by  Daniel  "  Darius  the  Mede  ;"  and  as  there 
has  been  much  discussion  as  to  who  he  really  was,  it 
is  worth  while  to  look  a  little  closely  into  his  his- 
tory. Now  Daniel,  in  the  next  verse  to  that  in 
which  he  mentions  the  death  of  Belshazzar,  says  dis- 
tinctly, "And  Darius  the  Median  took  the  king- 
dom, being  about  threescore  and  two  years  old,"* 
a  statement  apparently  at  variance  with  the  prophecy 
of  Isaiah,  which,  indicating  Cyrus  as  the  conqueror 
of  Babylon,  does  not  mention  any  one  else,  and  is 
so  far  in  agreement  with  profane  history.  It  is, 
however,  quite  clear  that  Daniel  understands  the 
kingdom  as  given  to  the  Medes  and  Persians,  and 
where  "Darius  the  Mede"  is  mentioned  two  or 
three  times  subsequently,  this  is  always  as  a  personage 
enjoying  sovereign  rank  in  the  province  of  Babylonia, 
even  if  not  beyond  it:  in  one  place,  indeed,  his 
title  is  "  Darius  the  son  of  Ahasuerus,  of  the  seed  of 
the  Medes."  This  is  all  we  learn  of  him  from  the 
Bible. 

Now  I  venture  to  think  it  not  unlikely  that  this 

*  Dan.  v.  31. 


84  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

Darius  is  really  the  same  person  as  Astyages,  the  old 
king  of  Media,  who,  as  we  have  seen,  was  dethroned 
by  Cyrus  at  the  commencement  of  his  victorious 
career ;  and  my  reason  for  thinking  so  is,  that,  as  it 
was  the  custom  of  Cyrus  to  treat  the  monarchs  he 
vanquished  with  unusual  magnanimity,  there  is  no  d 
priori  reason  why  Astyages  may  not  have  survived 
the  loss  of  his  kingdom,  just,  as  we  know,  was  the 
case  with  Croesus  and  Nabonidus.  It  might,  too, 
have  been  good  policy  in  Cyrus  to  gratify  his  Me- 
dian subjects  by  making  a  descendant  of  Cyaxares 
(Akhasveroth)  viceroy  of  Babylon.*  On  this  sup- 
position Darius  would,  naturally,  have  reigned  there 
during  the  two  years  B.C.  538-536,  during  which 
Cyrus  was  completing  his  conquests;  and  further, 
these  two  years  would  naturally  have  been  included 
in  the  nine  assigned  to  Cyrus  in  the  Babylonian 
annals.  Again,  if  this  were  so,  we  can  easily  under- 
stand that  he  would  have  been,  more  than  Cyrus,  in 
constant  intercourse  with  the  Jews  of  the  Captivity, 
who  would  naturally  give  him  the  title  of  king,  and 
reckon  the  year  of  his  death,  B.C.  536,  which  was 
that  of  their  own  restoration,  as  the  first  year  of 
Cyrus. 

Again,  it  is  certain  that  this  Darius,  whoever  he 
was,  exercised  a  delegated  authority ;  for  Gesenius 

*  Thus  in  the  Behistin  inscription,  we  find  Frawartish,  a  Me- 
dian, and  Sitratachmes  from  Sagartia,  claiming  the  throne  as 
descendants  of  Cyaxares.  "  I  am  Xathrites  of  the  race  of  Cyaxa- 
res." "  I  am  king  of  Sagartia,  of  the  race  of  Cyaxares."  Beh. 
Inscr.  col.  ii.  p.  5,  14. 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  85 

has  shown  that  the  word  translated  "took,"  does  not 
mean  "took  of  himself  as  by  force  of  arms,"  but 
"received  from  another;"  while,  in  Dan.  ix.  i,  it  is 
distinctly  stated  that  he  "was  made  king."  Again, 
as  the- Darius,  son  ofHystaspes,  in  his  inscription,  is 
admitted  to  be  an  appellative  name,  there  seems  no 
reason  why  the  same  should  not  have  been  the  case 
here,  and  the  private  name  of  "  Darius  the  Mede," 
have  been  Astyages.  Had  Daniel  asserted,  that 
"  Darius  the  Mede"  reigned  by  his  own  authority, 
there  would  have  been  an  apparent  contradiction ; 
whereas  what  he  does  tell  us  is  only  something  more 
than  either  Herodotus  or  Xenophon  happen  to  have 
recorded.  Lastly,  Isaiah  prophesies  a  joint  attack 
on  Babylon :  "Go  up,  O  Elam ;  besiege,  O  Media,"* 
while  in  another  place,  he  makes  the  Medes  alone 
God's  avengers  :f  moreover,  Jeremiah,  speaking  of 
"  an  assembly  of  great  nations  from  the  North 
country,"|  specifically  names  the  Medes,  in  the 
words  "The  Lord  hath  raised  up  the  spirit  of  the 
kings  of  the  Medes. "§  We  should,  indeed,  naturally 
have  expected  that  the  Medes  would  take  a  promi- 
nent part  in  the  overthrow  of  Babylon,  while  they 
would,  according  to  the  usual  custom  of  the  East,  be 
under  their  own  kings  or  chiefs. 

Eusebius  has  preserved  a  statement  (which  we  may 
take  for  what  it  is  worth)  from  Megasthenes,  to  the 
effect  that  Nebuchadnezzar  had  himself  told  his  peo- 
ple (perhaps  after  a  dream),  that  "  a  Persian  ruler 
will  come,  aided  by  your  gods,  and  will  bring  slavery 

*  Isa.  xxxl.          f  Isa.  xiii.  17.         J  Jer.  1.  9.         §  Jer.  li.  n. 


86  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

upon  you,  whose  accomplice  shall  be  a  Mede,  the 
boast  of  Assyria;"  and  as  Assyrian  history  shows 
that  Babylon  was  often  under  the  government  of 
viceroys,  the  appointment  of  a  Median  to  such  an 
office  in  no  way  implies,  as  has  been  thought,  the 
intervention,  even  for  a  short  period,  of  a  Median 
government. 

Now,  taking  all  these  facts  into  consideration, 
there  seems  no  great  difficulty  in  accounting  for  a 
"  Darius  the  Mede  "  as  the  ruler  of  Babylon,  even 
if  the  proposal  to  consider  him  the  same  as  Astyages 
be  thought  too  bold.*  The  interpretation  of  the 
writing  on  the  wall,  wherein  the  Persians  alone  are 
mentioned  as  the  conquerors,  with  the  immediate 
addition  that  the  kingdom  "  is  given  to  the  Medes 
and  the  Persians,"  seems  to  be  a  simple  statement 
of  the  whole  case :  while  it  is  difficult  to  suppose 
that  Daniel  could  have  been  ignorant  of  the  preced- 
ing prophecies  of  Isaiah  and  Jeremiah,  or  that  he 
would  have  constructed  a  story  directly  at  variance 
with  the  statements  of  the  books  he  distinctly  says 
he  had  studied. 

*  The  chief  objection  to  the  supposition  that  Astyages  may  have 
been  "  Darius  the  Mede  "  is  that  he  would  seem  to  be  too  old. 
But  it  is  quite  possible  that  he  may  have  been  ten  years  older  than 
Daniel  makes  him  ("about"  62 years),  and  Cyrus  more  than  ten 
years  younger  when  he  defeated  Astyages  than  his  usually  assumed 
age  of  40.  There  is,  indeed,  no  direct  evidence  of  the  age  of 
Cyrus  ;  Dinon,  it  is  true,  makes  him  70  years  old  at  his  death,  but 
Herodotus  implies  he  was  younger  at  his  overthrow  of  the 
Medes  than  is  generally  supposed. 


CHAPTER    IV. 

Tomb  of  Cyrus — Inscriptions  of  Darius — Behist£n — V£n,  &c.— 
Inscriptions  of  Xerxes — Artaxerxes,  &c. — Persepolis — Istakhr — 
Susa — Tomb  of  Darius,  son  of  Hystaspes. 

HAVING  now  given  a  brief  outline  of  the  history 
of  Ancient  Persia,  from  its  earliest  period  to  the 
overthrow  of  the  Achsemenian  or  native  kings  by 
the  conquest  of  Alexander,  I  proceed  to  give  some 
account  of  the  principal  monuments  of  the  same  race 
and  period,  attesting,  as  these  do  unmistakably,  the 
grandeur  of  those  who  constructed  them.  With 
these  monuments,  I  shall  notice  the  Cuneiform  in- 
scriptions connected  with  them,  because  their  inter- 
pretation has  thrown  much  light  alike  on  the  Bible 
and  on  profane  history,  and  reconciled  some  diffi- 
culties that  could  not  previously  be  cleared  up. 
With  this  object,  I  take  first  the  curious  structure 
commonly  called  the  "Tomb  of  Cyrus,"  the  oldest 
certain  relic  of  Ancient  Persia,  of  which  Mr.  Morier 
was  the  first  to  give  a  full  description,  in  which  he 
has  been  followed  by  Sir  Robert  K.  Porter  and  by 
Messrs.  Flandin  and  Coste. 

This  remarkable  building  stands  in  the  middle  of 
the  plain  of  Murghab,  on  a  site  satisfactorily  identi- 
fied with  that  of  Pasargadae,  the  capital  of  Persia  in 
the  time  of  Cyrus,  and  is  in  form  unlike  any  of  the 
other  royal  tombs,  or  indeed  any  other  known 

87 


88  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

Persian  work,  while  it  fairly  resembles  what  Aristo- 
bulus,  who  was  sent  by  Alexander  to  restore  it,  calls 
"  a  house  upon  a  pedestal."  It  is,  in  fact,  a  build- 
ing constructed  of  square  blocks  of  white  marble, 
enormous  in  size,  and  stands  on  a  base  of  seven  steps 
of  different  heights  :  its  stone  roof,  with  pediments 
at  each  end,  gives  it  a  striking  resemblance  to  a 
Greek  temple.  Like  a  temple,  too,  it  has  no  win- 
dows, but  only  a  low  narrow  doorway  at  each  end, 
leading  into  a  cell,  eleven  feet  long  by  seven  feet 
high  and  broad,  doubtless  the  chamber  wherein 
Arrian  says  the  golden  coffin  of  Cyrus  was  originally 
placed.  It  had,  however,  been  rifled  before  the  visit 
of  Aristobulus  by  Polymachus  and  others,  a  sacrilege 
so  much  resented  by  Alexander,  that  he  ordered  the 
chief  perpetrator  of  it,  though  a  Macedonian  of  high 
rank  from  Pella,  to  be  put  to  death.  Its  present 
height  above  the  ground  is  about  thirty-six  feet,  and 
its  base  forms  a  parallelogram,  forty-seven  feet  long 
by  forty-three  feet  nine  inches  broad.  Around  this 
tomb,  is  a  rectangular  area,  where  there  are  still  the 
shattered  remains  of  several  columnar  shafts,  por- 
tions, probably,  of  a  colonnade  or  a  court,  which 
once  surrounded  the  tomb  itself. 

The  first  person  to  suggest  that  this  structure  was 
the  tomb  of  Cyrus,  was  Mr.  Morier;  and  his  sugges- 
tion has  been  confirmed  by  the  discovery  of  a  bas- 
relief,  carved  on  the  side  of  a  monolithic  pillar, 
about  fifteen  feet  high,  which  stands  near  the  tomb, 
and  is  inscribed  in  the  three  forms  of  Cuneiform 
writing,  with  the  words,  "I  am  Cyrus,  the  king,  the 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  89 

Achgemenian."  This  relief,  which  is  extremely  curi- 
ous, represents  a  tall  figure  (nearly,  indeed,  the  same 
height  as  the  monolith  is  at  present  above  the 
ground),  in  the  form  of  a  colossal  winged  man 
wearing  an  Egyptian  head-dress.  This  figure,  of 
which  Ker  Porter  has  given  an  excellent  engraving, 
was  at  one  time  supposed  to  be  a  portrait  of  Cyrus : 
it  is  more  probably  the  representation  of  a  good 
genius.  The  same  short  inscription  is  repeated 
several  times  on  other  slabs  in  the  neighborhood. 

The  history  of  the  first  interpretation  of  this  in- 
scription, as  given  by  Prof.  Heeren,  is  very  interest- 
ing. A  distinguished  scholar,  Dr.  Grotefend,  had 
been  long  trying  to  decipher  the  Cuneiform  inscrip- 
tions, but  had  met  with  slender  success,  chiefly,  no 
doubt,  from  the  scarcity  of  materials  then  in  Europe, 
with  which  to  compare  and  test  his  conjectural 
alphabet.  While  so  engaged,  he  met  with  a  legend 
apparently  in  four  words,  and  from  the  analogy  of 
others  he  had  received  from  Persepolis,  was  led  to 
suspect  the  second  word  a  name,  and  the  third  and 
fourth  the  titles  of  the  person  to  whom  the  whole 
referred.  A  little  while  afterwards  he  obtained  a 
copy  of  the  French  translation  of  Morier's  travels, 
and  there  found,  much  to  his  surprise,  the  identical 
inscription  with  Morier's  suggestion,  that  the  place 
where  it  and  other  similar  ones  had  been  noticed, 
was  no  other  than  Pasargadae,  and  that  the  unique 
building  above  noticed  was  the  tomb  of  Cyrus. 

Since   then   this    inscription   has   been   carefully 
studied  by  Professor  Lassen  and  Sir  H.  C.  Rawlin- 


90  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

son,  and  the  former  has  published  an  able  essay  on 
it  in  the  journal  of  the  German  Oriental  Society. 
There  is  no  doubt,  therefore,  as  to  the  correctness 
of  the  interpretation.  Mr.  Fergusson  has  further 
remarked,  that  the  negative  evidence  in  favor  of  its 
being  Cyrus'  tomb,  derived  from  its  architectural 
style,  is  no  less  conclusive.  It  is,  he  thinks,  a  build- 
ing of  the  age  of  the  Achsemenidae,  and,  certainly,  a 
tomb ;  and  as  everything  around  it  belongs  to  Cyrus, 
it  may  fairly  be  presumed  does  this  also ;  agreeing, 
moreover,  as  it  does  faithfully,  with  Arrian's  descrip- 
tion of  the  building  Alexander  ordered  Aristobulus 
to  restore.  I  will  venture  further  to  suggest  that,  as 
the  building  has  so  strong  a  resemblance  to  ordinary 
Greek  structures,  it  is  not  impossible  that  what  we 
now  see  is  mainly  the  restoration  of  Aristobulus ; 
though,  on  the  supposition  that  it  was  erected  by 
Cyrus  during  his  lifetime,  it  is  equally  possible  that 
he  employed  Greek  workmen,  the  more  so,  that, 
after  his  wars  in  Asia  Minor,  Greek  artists  might 
easily  have  been  secured  for  Persian  edifices.  I 
ought  to  add  that  Onesicritus  and  Aristus  of  Salamis, 
have  preserved,  in  the  form  of  a  Greek  hexameter,  a 
nearly  accurate  translation  of  the  inscription  above 
noticed,  thus  affording  a  strong  presumption  that 
this  legend  was  known  beyond  the  boundaries  of 
Cyrus'  own  dominions.* 

*  The  following  are  the  chief  authorities  on  the  subject  of  the 
tomb  of  Cyrus.  Arrian,  Exped.  Alex,  compared  with  Strab.  xv. 
3,  7.  Morier's  Journ.  pp.  144-6.  Ker  Porter,  i.  pp.  498-500. 
Rich,  Journey  to  Persepoljs,  pp.  239-244.  Fergusson,  Palaces  of 


HISTORY  OF   PERSIA.  91 

We  come  next  to  the  great  monument  of  Behistan, 
(on  some  of  the  maps  called  Bisutun),  the  most 
valuable  of  all  the  Achsemenian  remains.  Behistan* 
is  the  name  of  a  nearly  perpendicular  mountain  near 
Kirmanshah,  in  Persia,  which  rises  abruptly  from 
the  plain  to  the  height  of  1700  feet,  and  is,  as  Sir 
H.  C.  Rawlinson  has  remarked,  singularly  well 
adapted  for  the  holy  purposes  of  the  early  Persian 
tribes.  It  was  known  to  the  Greeks  by  the  name  of 
Payioravav  6pof,  and  was,  of  course,  said  to  have  been 
sacred  to  Zeus.  Sir  H.  C.  Rawlinson  further  points 
out  that  the  principal  description  in  Diodorus,  ex- 
tracted from  Ctesias,  is  geographically  clear,  though 
we  do  not  now  discern  the  sculptures,  said  to  repre- 
sent Semiramis  and  her  hundred  guards.  All  of 
importance  now  visible  are  the  bas-reliefs  of  Darius 
and  of  the  rebels  he  crushed,  together  with  "  nearly 
a  thousand  lines  in  Cuneiform  characters." 

That  great  pains  were  taken  to  ensure  the  per- 

Nineveh  and  Persepolis,  p.  214.  Flandin  and  Coste,  Voy.  en 
Perse,  p.  157.  Texier's  Mem.  ii.  PI.  82.  Heeren,  Asiatic  Nations, 
vol.  ii.  p.  350. 

*  The  following  notice  of  the  monument  at  Behistdn,  is  taken 
from  the  account  published  by  its  first  interpreter,  Sir  Henry  (then 
Major)  Rawlinson,  in  the  Journ.  of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  vol. 
x.  1847.  The  portion  of  the  translated  inscriptions,  quoted,  is  from 
the  copy  of  them  recently  furnished  by  him  to  "  Records  of  the 
Past,"  vol.  i.  pp.  111-115, 1874.  A  handsomely  executed  volume 
has  been  lately  published  in  St.  Petersburg  (1872),  by  M.  C.  Kos- 
sowicz,  comprising  all  the  Perso-cuneiform  inscriptions,  under  the 
title  "  Inscriptions  Palaeo-Persicae  Achaemenidarum."  To  this 
work  I  am  indebted  for  the  plate  forming  the  frontispiece  of  this 
volume,  exhibiting,  as  it  does,  a  new  view  of  the  rock  of  Behistdn. 


92  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

manency  of  the  monument,  is  clear  from  its  position, 
at  more  than  300  feet  above  the  plain,  with  an  ascent 
to  it  so  steep,  that  the  engravers  must  have  had  a 
scaffold  erected  for  them.  Again,  the  mere  prepara- 
tion of  the  surface  of  the  rock  for  the  inscription 
must  have  occupied  months;  for  wherever,  from  the 
unsoundness  of  the  stone,  it  was  difficult  to  give  it 
the  necessary  polish,  other  pieces  have  been  inlaid, 
their  fittings  being  so  close,  that  a  minute  examina- 
tion is  required  to  detect  this  artifice.  Sir  H.  C. 
Rawlinson  adds,  "  I  cannot  avoid  noticing  a  very 
extraordinary  device  which  has  been  employed,  ap- 
parently to  give  a  finish  and  durability  to  the  writing 
....  that,  after  the  engraving  of  the  rock  had  been 
accomplished,  a  coating  of  silicious  varnish  has  been 
laid  on,  to  give  a  clearness  of  outline  to  each  indi- 
vidual letter,  and  to  protect  the  surface  against  the 
action  of  the  elements.  This  varnish  is  of  infinitely 
greater  hardness  than  the  limestone  rock  beneath  it. 
It  has  been  washed  down  in  many  places  by  the 
trickling  water  for  three-and-twenty  centuries,  and 
it  lies  in  flakes  upon  the  foot  ledge,  like  thin  layers 
of  lava.  It  adheres,  in  other  portions  of  the  tablet,  to 
the  broken  surface,  and  still  shows,  with  sufficient  dis- 
tinctness, the  forms  of  the  characters,  although  the  rock 
beneath  is  entirely  honey-combed  and  destroyed." 
The  reliefs  on  the  rock  are  still  but  little  injured 
by  time,  and  represent  a  row  of  nine  persons  tied  by 
the  neck  like  slaves,  approaching  another  personage 
of  more  majestic  stature,  who  treads  on  a  prostrate 
body.  Of  these  presumed  captives,  three  wear  the 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  93 

flowing  dress  of  the  monarch,  the  rest  being  clad  in 
tight,  short  tunics.  Behind  the  king  stand  two  war- 
riors, armed  with  the  bow  and  spear.  The  general 
execution  of  the  figures  is  inferior  to  that  of  the  re- 
liefs at  Persepolis;  the  king  and  his  warriors  are  the 
best,  while  the  conquered  rebels  are  represented  as 
diminutive  in  size.  The  Median  robe  and  the  Per- 
sian tunic  occur  alternately.  The  whole  sculpture  is 
manifestly  a  triumphal  memorial,  for  tablets  with 
the  names  of  the  persons  referred  to,  are  placed  over 
the  monarch  and  the  captives  so  that  there  may  be 
no  mistake.  The  following  is  a  specimen  of  the 
general  form  of  these  legends.  Over  the  head  of  the 
king  himself,  we  read:  "I  am  Darius  the  king,  the 
king  of  kings,  the  king  of  Persia,  the  great  king  of 
the  provinces,  the  son  of  Hystaspes,  the  grandson  of 
Arsames,  the  Achaemenian.  Says  Darius,  the  king : 
My  father  was  Hystaspes ;  of  Hystaspes,  the  father 
was  Arsames;  of  Arsames,  the  father  was  Ariyaram- 
nes;  of  Ariyaram-nes,  the  father  was  Teispes;  of 
Teispes,  the  father  was  Achaemenes.  Says  Darius 
the  king:  On  that  account  we  are  called  Achseme- 
nians.  From  antiquity  we  have  descended  ;  from 
antiquity  those  of  our  race  have  been  kings.  Says 
Darius  the  king :  There  are  eight  of  my  race  who 
have  been  kings  before  me ;  I  am  the  ninth.  For  a 
very  long  time  (or  in  a  double  line)  we  have  been 
kings.  Says  Darius  the  king:  By  the  grace  of 
Ormazd  I  am  king.  Ormazd  has  granted  to  me  the 
empire.  Says  Darius  the  king:  These  are  the 
countries  which  belong  to  me:  by  the  grace  of 


94  HISTORY  OF   PERSIA. 

Ormazd  I  have  become  king  of  them;  Persia,  Susi- 
ana,  Babylonia,  Assyria,  Arabia,  Egypt ;  those  which 
are  of  the  sea,  (/.  e.  the  islands  of  the  Mediterranean), 
Sparta  and  Ionia,  Media,  Armenia,  Cappadocia, 
Parthia,  Zarangia,  Aria,  Chorasmia,  Bactria,  Sog- 
diana,  Gandara,  the  Sacse,  the  Sattagydes,  Arachosia, 
and  Mecia,  in  all  twenty-three  countries." 

On  the  previous  state  of  his  empire,  Darius  speaks 
as  follows :  "  Says  Darius  the  king :  This  (is)  what 
was  done  by  me  before  I  became  king.  He,  who 
was  named  Cambyses,  the  son  of  Cyrus  of  our  race, 
he  was  here  king  before  me.  There  was  of  that 
Cambyses  a  brother,  named  Bardes;  he  was  of  the 
same  father  and  mother  as  Cambyses:  afterwards 
Cambyses  slew  this  Bardes.  When  Cambyses  slew 
Bardes,  it  was  not  known  to  the  state  that  Bardes 
was  killed :  then  Cambyses  proceeded  to  Egypt. 
When  Cambyses  had  gone  to  Egypt,  the  state  be- 
came wicked ;  then  the  lie  became  abounding  in  the 
land,  both  in  Persia  and  in  Media,  and  in  the  other 
provinces." 

Of  the  rebellion  of  the  Pseudo-Bardes,  or  Gomates, 
he  adds,  "  Afterwards,  there  was  a  certain  man,  a  Ma- 
gian,  called  Gomates.  .  .  .  To  the  state  he  thus  falsely 
declared,  I  am  Bardes,  the  son  of  Cyrus,  the  brother 
of  Cambyses.  Then  the  whole  state  became  rebel- 
lious; from  Cambyses  it  went  over  to  him,  both 
Persia  and  Media  and  the  other  provinces  ....  Says 
Darius  the  king:  There  was  not  a  man,  neither  Per- 
sian nor  Median,  nor  any  one  of  our  family,  who 
could  dispossess  of  the  empire  that  Gomates  the 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  95 

Magian.  The  state  feared  him  exceedingly.  He 
slew  many  people  who  had  known  the  old  Bardes ; 
for  that  reason  he  slew  the  people,  '  lest  they  should 
recognize  me,  that  I  am  not  Bardes,  the  son  of  Cy- 
rus.' There  was  not  any  one  bold  enough  to  say 
aught  against  Gomates  the  Magian  till  I  arrived. 
Then  I  prayed  to  Ormazd;  Ormazd  brought  help 
unto  me.  On  the  tenth  day  of  the  month,  Bagaza- 
dish,  then  it  was,  with  my  faithful  men  (or  with  a 
few  men)  I  slew  that  Gomates,  the  Magian,  and  the 
chief  men  who  were  his  followers.  The  fort,  named 
Sictachotes,  in  the  district  of  Media,  named  Nissea, 
there  I  slew  him;  I  dispossessed  him  of  the  empire 
....  The  empire  that  had  been  wrested  from  our 
race,  that  I  recovered ;  I  established  it  in  its  place  as 
in  the  days  of  old ;  thus  I  did.  The  temples  which 
Gomates  the  Magian  had  destroyed  I  rebuilt.  I  re- 
instituted  for  the  state  the  sacred  chants  and  (sacri- 
fical)  worship,  and  confided  them  to  the  families 
which  Gomates  the  Magian  had  deprived  of  those 

offices I  labored  that  Gomates  the   Magian 

might  not  supersede  our  family."  Sir  H.  C.  Raw- 
linson  thinks  that  an  attitude  of  extreme  abjectness 
has  been  given  to  this  figure,  to  mark  the  difference 
of  character  between  the  Magian  usurpation,  and  the 
partial  and  temporary  disorders  in  the  provinces. 
It  appears,  further,  that  the  rebels  who  sprang  up  in 
Persia,  claiming  to  be  the  son  of  Cyrus,  took  the  title 
of  "  the  king, "  while  the  provincial  impostors  are 
merely  called  kings  of  the  localities  where  they  re- 
belled. 


96  HISTORY   OF    PERSIA. 

The  fifth  figure  is  curious  for  the  nature  of  the 
claim  he  set  up,  as  a  descendant  of  the  famous  early 
monarch  Cyaxares:  "  I  am  king  of  Sagartia,  of  the 
race  of  Cyaxares."  The  ninth  is  interesting  from 
his  title  and  dress,  the  legend  over  him,  reading — 
"This  is  Sakuka,  the  Sacan."  Sir  H.  C.  Rawlinson 
remarks  that  this  figure,  has  evidently  been  added 
subsequently  to  the  execution  of  the  original  design, 
it  being  in  a  recess,  as  though  this  portion  of  the 
rock  had  at  first  been  smoothed  down  for  an  inscrip- 
tion. It  may  be  further  noticed  that  this  figure 
wears  the  high  cap  Herodotus  tells  us  was  the 
characteristic  dress  of  the  Sacse.  The  whole  in- 
scfiption  is  in  the  three  types  of  the  Cuneiform 
writing. 

It  is  singular  what  blunders  were  made  by  even  the 
ablest  travelers,  as  to  the  meaning  of  this  sculptured 
scene  before  Sir  H.  C.  Rawlinson  gave  to  the  world, 
for  the  first  time,  in  the  tenth  volume  of  the  Asiatic 
Journal  (1847),  the  true  meaning  of  the  inscription. 
Thus,  Sir  R.  K.  Porter,  in  an  age  when  every  new 
discovery  in  the  East  was  assumed  to  have  reference 
to  Holy  Scripture,  beheld  in  these  figures,  Tiglath- 
Pileser  and  ten  captive  tribes,  combining  with  a 
somewhat  fanciful  interpretation  a  singular  igno- 
rance of  Bible  history,  in  that  he  assigned  to  the 
tribe  of  Levi,  to  whose  representative  he  gave  a  sort 
of  sacerdotal  costume,  a  place  among  the  captive 
tribes;  while  another  and  later  traveler,  Keppel, 
conceiving  one  of  the  figures  a  female,  changed  both 
scene  and  locality,  confounded  Susa  with  Ecbatana, 


HISTORY   OF    PERSIA.  97 

and  converted  the  whole  train  into  Esther  and  her 
attendants,  entreating  the  king  of  Persia  to  have 
mercy  on  her  countrymen  ! 

But  although  the  Behistan  inscription  is  by  far  the 
most  important  memorial  of  Darius  and  of  the  Per- 
sian state  and  system  of  his  day,  there  are  others 
having  reference  to  him,  at  different  places  in  Persia 
and  Armenia.  The  information,  however,  we  get 
from  them,  is  by  no  means  so  full.  In  these  inscrip- 
tions, as  Sir  H.  C.  Rawlinson  has  remarked,  "  We 
must  be  content  for  the  most  part  to  peruse  a  certain 
formula  of  invocation  to  Ormazd,  and  a  certain 
empty  parade  of  royal  titles,  recurring  with  a  most 
wearisome  and  disappointing  uniformity." 

I  will  now  briefly  notice  the  inscriptions  of  Darius 
at  Persepolis.  Sir  H.  C.  Rawlinson  thinks  that 
during  the  lifetime  of  Darius,  the  platform,  the 
pillared  colonnade,  and  one  of  the  palaces  were  con- 
structed ;  the  other  buildings  being  due  to  Xerxes, 
Artaxerxes,  and  Ochus,  of  whom  they  bear  comme- 
morative legends ;  while  Niebuhr,  on  the  other  hand, 
fancied  that  the  palace,  now  known  to  be  that  of 
Xerxes,  was  the  most  ancient  edifice  at  Persepolis. 
The  inferiority  of  execution,  however,  to  his  mind 
a  proof  of  higher  antiquity,  is  really  due  to  a  decline 
in  the  art  of  carving.  The  inscriptions  on  the  pre- 
sumed palace  of  Darius  are  unquestionably  the  oldest 
yet  discovered  at  Persepolis,  and  are  therefore  placed 
first,  both  by  Lassen  and  Rawlinson.  Their  posi- 
tion is  over  the  figures  of  the  king  and  of  his  two 
attendants,  on  the  doorways  of  the  central  chamber ; 

G 


90  HISTORY   OF    PERSIA. 

and  their  value  is  that  they  afford  an  historical  inter- 
pretation to  the  group  below  them. 

On  another  tablet,  a  huge  slab  of  stone,  twenty- 
six  feet  long,  and  six  high,  occurs  the  following  re- 
markable passage,  showing  the  hatred  the  early  Per- 
sians bore  to  the  vice  of  lying. — "Says  Darius  the 
king :  May  Ormazd  bring  help  to  me,  with  the 
deities  who  guard  my  house;  and  may  Ormazd  pro 
tect  this  province  from  slavery,  from  decrepitude, 
from  lying :  let  not  war,  nor  slavery,  nor  decrepi- 
tude, nor  lies,  obtain  power  over  this  province. 
That  I  hereby  commit  to  Ormazd,  with  the  deities 
who  guard  my  house." 

The  next  inscriptions,  if  we  take  the  chronological 
order  suggested  by  Sir  H.  C.  Rawlinson,  are  those 
engraven  at  the  foot  of  the  mountain  of  Alwand,  in 
the  immediate  vicinity  of  the  town  of  Hamadan 
(the  Ecbatana  of  Greater  Media).  They  are  placed 
in  two  niches  cut  in  the  face  of  a  huge  block  of  red 
granite,  and  exhibit  a  Cuneiform  inscription  in  the 
three  different  types,  arranged  in  parallel  lines ;  the 
Persian  occupying  the  first  place  or  that  furthest  to 
the  left. 

Other  inscriptions  referring  to  Darius,  but  of  later 
date,  have  been  found  at  Nakhsh-i-Rustam,  near 
Persepolis  :  on  these  we  find  a  somewhat  longer  list 
of  conquered  nations;  and,  if  "the  Scythians  beyond 
the  Sea"  is  an  allusion  to  the  famous  expedition  of 
Darius,  these  could  not  have  been  finished  before  B. 
c.  492.  There  is  one  of  the  inscriptions  (the  upper 
one  in  Persian)  containing  nearly  sixty  lines,  in 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  99 

tolerable  preservation.  We  owe  to  the  zeal  of  M. 
Westergaard,  aided  by  a  powerful  telescope,  the  best 
copy  of  these  inscriptions,  which  have  been  trans- 
lated by  Sir  H.  C.  Rawlinson  and  M.  Lassen,  and 
are,  in  sense,  substantially  the  same  as  that  at  Al- 
wand.  Besides  these,  there  is  a  short  inscription  of 
Darius,  on  a  very  beautiful  cylinder,  in  the  British 
Museum,  one  of  the  finest  known  specimens  of  Per- 
sian gem  engraving,  and  on  a  stone  found  near  the 
embouchure  of  the  ancient  canal  leading  from  the 
Nile  to  the  Red  Sea. 

The  inscriptions  of  Xerxes,  the  son  and  successor 
of  Darius,  though  numerous,  have  little  of  variety 
or  interest.  They  are  found  at  Alwand,  at  Perse- 
polis  and  at  Van,  and  commence  generally  with  the 
invocation  to  Ormazd,  and  the  formal  declaration 
of  the  royal  name  and  titles  adopted  in  the  previous 
reign.  We  are  not  able  to  determine  their  chro- 
nological order ;  but  with  reference  to  the  inscriptions 
found  near  Ecbatana,  Sir  H.  C.  Rawlinson  observes, 
"  that  they  were  probably  engraved  on  the  occasion 
of  one  of  the  annual  journeys  which  the  monarchs 
respectively  made  between  Babylon  and  Ecbatana, 
and  their  chief  interest  consists  in  the  indication 
which  they  afford  of  the  ancient  line  of  communica- 
tion crossing  Mount  Orontes.  This  road,  it  is  well 
known,  was  ascribed  in  antiquity  to  the  fabulous  age 
of  Semiramis,  *  and  I  was  able  to  assure  myself  by 

*  We  now  know  by  the  statues  of  Nebo  in  the  British  Museum, 
which  are  inscribed  with  her  native  name  "  Sammuramit,"  that 
Semiramis  was  really  a  queen  of  Nineveh  during,  probably,  the 


100  HISTORY   OF    PERSIA. 

a  minute  personal  inspection,  that,  throughout  its 
whole  extent  from  the  Ganj-nameh  to  the  western 
base  of  the  mountains,  it  still  preserves  the  most 
unequivocal  marks  of  having  been  artificially  and 

most    laboriously  constructed On   the 

western  ascent  of  Orontes  the  artificial  road  is  still 
very  clearly  marked,  and  on  the  summit  of  the 
mountain  the  pavement  is  still  in  very  tolerable  pre- 
servation." As  at  Persepolis  Xerxes  added  largely, 
as  we  shall  see  hereafter,  to  the  unfinished  works  of 
his  father,  his  inscriptions  on  that  site  are  numerous. 
Of  these  there  are  two  classes — one  (repeated  ori- 
ginally perhaps  twenty  times,  and  still  existing  in 
twelve  copies),  a  reduction  of  his  standard  inscrip- 
tion, giving  the  royal  titles,  &c.,  the  other,  on  two 
high  pilasters  in  the  interior  of  the  edifice,  and  on 
the  eastern  and  western  staircases  of  one  of  the  most 
important  buildings  there,  which  is  thus  satisfactorily 
identified  as  his  work. 

The  inscriptions  at  Van  do  not  furnish  us  with 
any  new  facts,  and  the  only  remaining  ones  of  Xerx- 
es are  on  two  vases  of  Egyptian  alabaster,  each  of 
which  however  has  an  interest  of  its  own.  One  of 
these  originally  belonged  to  the  Count  de  Caylus, 
the  other  was  found  by  Mr.  Newton  during  his 
excavations  on  the  site  of  the  tomb  of  Maussollus  at 
Halicarnassus.  Each  bears  the  royal  title,  "Xerxes 
the  great  king,"  in  the  three  types  of  Cuneiform 
writing,  together  with  an  Egyptian  royal  cartouche, 

eighth  century  B.C.  These  inscriptions  were  first  deciphered  by 
Sir  H.  C.  Rawlinson. 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  IOI 

containing  his  name  expressed  hieroglyphically.  It 
is  worthy  of  note  that,  long  before  any  form  of  the 
Cuneiform  writing  was  made  out,  Champollion  read 
the  name  of  Xerxes  on  the  vase  of  the  Count  de 
Caylus.  On  the  discovery  by  Sir  H.  C.  Rawlinson 
of  the  Perso-cuneiform  alphabet,  the  name  of  Xerx- 
es was  at  once  detected  on  this  vase,  and  a  valuable 
corroboration  thus  obtained  of  the  truth  of  his  dis- 
coveries. Indeed,  this  remarkable  vase  ought  alone 
to  have  proved  that  the  interpretation  of  Cuneiform 
was  not,  as  Sir  Cornewall  Lewis  maintained,  a  "cun- 
ningly devised  fable."  Mr.  Newton's  discovery  is 
chiefly  valuable  for  the  place  where  he  found  it,  as 
the  question  naturally  arises,  how  came  it  there  ? 
My  belief  is  that  this  vase  was  given  by  Xerxes  to 
Artemisia,  queen  of  Halicarnassus,  in  return  for  the 
aid  in  ships  she  had  given  him  at  the  battle  of  Sala- 
mis.  Fragments  of  other  similar  vases  have  been 
met  with  by  Layard,  Loftus  and  other  excavators,  in 
some  cases  bearing  Cuneiform  letters;  and,  as  their 
material  is  Egyptian,  it  may  be  fairly  presumed  that 
a  store  of  them  was  kept  in  the  Royal  treasury  in- 
scribed with  the  king's  name  and  titles,  to  be  given 
from  time  to  time  to  those  whom  he  wished  to  honor. 
After  the  time  of  Xerxes,  the  writing  of  Cuneiform 
seems  to  have  fallen  into  disuse,  though  it  is  occa- 
sionally met  with  up  to  the  commencement  of  the 
Roman  empire,  and  there  are  some  interesting  con- 
tracts, &c.,  on  clay  tablets  bearing  the  names  of 
more  than  one  prince  of  the  Seleucidae.*  The  rapid 

*  The  following  is  a  list  of  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  Perso-cuneiform 


102  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

extension  of  the  Greek  language,  and  its  simplicity 
both  for  writing  and  reading,  naturally  diminished 
the  use  of  even  the  Persian  Cuneiform.  The  last 
monument  I  shall  notice  is  a  vase  in  grey  porphyry, 
preserved  in  the  treasury  of  St.  Mark's  at  Venice, 
bearing  on  it  an  inscription  badly  written  and  spelt, 
"  Artaxerxes  the  great  king."  As  on  the  two  vases 
of  Xerxes,  here,  also,  is  a  cartouche  with  the  same 
name  written  in  hieroglyphics,  which  was  long  since 
deciphered  by  Sir  Gardner  Wilkinson. 

In  concluding  this  portion  of  my  story,  I  am 
tempted  to  transcribe  a  few  eloquent  words  in  the 
Quarterly  Review  for  1847  (attributed  to  Dean  Mil- 
man),  shortly  after  the  first  translations  by  Sir  Henry 
(then  Major)  Rawlinson,  appeared  in  the  Journal 
of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  London  :  "The  more," 
says  the  writer,  "we  consider  the  marvellous  cha- 
racter of  this  discovery,  the  more  we  feel  some  mis- 
trust and  misgiving  returning  to  our  minds.  It  is 
no  less,  in  the  first  place,  than  the  creation  of  a 
regular  alphabet  of  nearly  forty  letters,  out  of  what 
appears,  at  first  sight,  confused  and  unmeaning  lines 
and  angles;  and,  secondly,  the  creation  of  a  lan- 
guage out  of  the  words  so  formed  from  this  alphabet ; 

inscriptions  yet  found,  i.  Cyrus  at  Murghab.  2.  Darius,  son  of 
Hystaspes  at  Behistdn,  Alwand,  Susa,  Persepolis,  Nakhsh-Rustdm 
(with  cylinder  in  Brit.  Mus.).  3.  Xerxes  at  Persepolis,  Alwand, 
Vdn,  and  on  vases  of  the  Count  of  Caylus,  and  from  Halicarnassus 
(in  Brit.  Mus.).  4.  Artaxerxes  I.,  Longimanus,  on  vase  at  Venice. 
5.  Darius  II.  at  Persepolis.  6.  Artaxerxes  Mnemon  at  Susa.  7. 
Ochus  at  Persepolis.  8.  On  a  seal,  bearing  the  name  of  Arsakes, 
noted  by  Grotefend. 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  103 

and  yet  so  completely  does  the  case  appear  to  be 
made  out,  that  we  are  not  in  the  least  disposed  to 
retract  or  even  to  suspend  our  adhesion  to  Professor 
Lassen  and  Major  Rawlinson.  To  the  latter  espe- 
cially, an  officer  rather  than  a  student  by  profession, 
almost  self-instructed  in  some  of  the  most  important 
branches  of  knowledge  requisite  to  the  undertaking, 
tempted  onwards,  it  is  true,  by  these  gradual  revela- 
tions of  knowledge  expanding  to  his  view,  yet  de- 
voting himself  with  disinterested,  but  we  trust  not 
hereafter  to  be  unrewarded  labor,  we  would  express 
in  the  strongest  terms  our  grateful  admiration.  His 
indefatigable  industry  in  the  cause  of  science  can 
only  be  appreciated  justly  by  those  who  know  what 
it  is  to  labor  for  hours  under  the  sun  of  Persia ;  for 
in  some  cases,  when  inscriptions  are  placed  very 
high,  are  unapproachable  by  ladders,  and  are  perhaps 
weatherworn  or  mutilated  by  accident,  nothing  less 
than  the  full  effulgence  of  Ormazd  can  accurately 
reveal  the  names  and  deeds  of  his  worshipers.  The 
early  travelers,  as  well  as  Porter,  Rich,  and  all  who 
have  labored  to  obtain  accurate  transcripts  of  the 
Cuneiform  inscriptions,  bear  testimony  to  the  diffi- 
culties and  even  dangers  which  are  incurred  from 
this  and  other  causes." 

It  would  be  impossible  within  the  limits  of  this 
small  volume,  to  give  a  detailed  account  of  the  lan- 
guage enshrined  in  these  inscriptions ;  it  is  enough 
to  state  that  abundant  analogies  support  the  belief 
that  the  ancient  Persian  tongue  of  the  time  of 
Darius,  as  well  as  that  now  spoken  in  the  country, 


104  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

is  a  genuine  member  of  the  great  family  to  which 
the  term  Indo-European  has  been  happily  applied. 
The  most  casual  glance  at  any  comparative  list  of 
words  (especially  of  those  in  most  common  use) 
taken  from  these  languages,  will  convince  any  reader 
of  intelligence  of  the  substantial  relationship  exist- 
ing between  them.  Thus,  find  — 


Old  Persian.    Sanscrit. 
Bratar                bhratar 

Latin. 
frater 

German. 
bruder 

English. 
brother 

Man  (to  think)  man 
Duvarfi              dvara 

mens 
fores 

meinen 
thiire 

mean, 
door 

<^ta  (to  stand)  sthi 
Mum                  mdm 

sto 
me 

stehen 
mich 

stand 
me 

Mdtar                 matar 

mdter 

mutter 

mother 

Tuvam               twam 

tu 

du 

thou 

Pad                   pada 

ped-em 

fuss 

foot 

and  so  on.  The  chief  characteristic  of  the  Indo- 
European  tongues  is  the  possession  of  a  number  of 
roots,  a  peculiar  mode  of  inflections,  together  with 
a  constant  resemblance  between  these  inflections, 
and  a  general  similarity  of  syntax  and  construction. 
One  of  these  peculiarities,  the  form  of  the  mascu- 
line terminations  of  the  nominatives,  applying  to 
Persian  names,  was  noticed  by  Herodotus  (1.139). 
As  a  form  of  writing,  the  Persian  Cuneiform  is  the 
most  recent  of  the  three  types,  and  a  simplification 
of  the  earlier  ones,  each  group  of  arrow  heads  in 
this  class  representing  a  single  letter  :  like  the  San- 
scrit and  the  Greek,  it  was  written  from  left  to  right  ; 
no  writing  distinctively  Median  has  been,  I  believe, 
yet  detected.  The  stories  of  the  letter  sent  from 
Harpagus  to  Cyrus,  and  of  a  certain  Median  king, 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  10$ 

Artaeus,  evidence  the  belief  that  orders  to  and  from 
monarchs  were  conveyed  in  writing.  Again,  from 
Scripture,  we  know  that  "Darius  the  Mede  "  signs 
with  his  own  hand  a  document  brought  to  him  by 
his  nobles,  while,  at  the  Persian  Court,  as  probably 
elsewhere,  a  volume  was  preserved  called  "  The 
book  of  the  chronicles  of  the  kings  of  Media  and 
Persia."*  There  must  also  have  been  for  common 
and  private  use,  some  form  of  cursive  writing 
(perhaps  in  Phoenician  characters),  easy  to  write  and 
easy  to  read,  as,  on  some  of  the  Assyrian  monu- 
ments, officers  may  be  noticed  writing  down  lists  of 
spoil,  captives,  &c.,  on  a  material  evidently  papyrus, 
parchment,  or  leather. 

Having  now  said  something  of  the  personal  history 
of  early  kings  of  Persia,  and  of  the  inscriptions  en- 
shrining the  truest  details  about  them,  I  shall  give 
some  account  of  the  most  important  antiquities, 
whether  buildings  or  tombs,  belonging  to  the  same 
race. 

Now,  of  buildings,  with  the  exception  of  the 
Tomb  of  Cyrus,  already  described,  it  is  a  remarka- 
ble fact,  that  scarcely  a  fragment  is  now  certainly 
recognizable,  with  the  exception  of  the  great  groups 
on  the  platform  at  Persepolis ;  but  these  are  so 
famous,  that,  although  they  have  been  given  fully  in 
many  modern  works,  not  difficult  of  access,  it  is  ne- 
cessary for  me  to  offer  a  short  account.  The  usual 
modern  name  of  these  ruins  is  Takht-i-Jamshid, 
(the  structure  of  Jamshid)  or  Chehl  Minar  (the 
*  Esth.  x.  2. 


106  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

Forty  Pillars)  :  they  are  situated  a  little  off  the  main 
road  between  Ispahan  and  Shiraz,  on  a  platform 
chiefly  artificial,  overlooking  a  rich  and  well  watered 
plain.  These  ruins  certainly  represent  the  remains 
of  one  or  more  of  the  chief  structures  of  the  Achae- 
menian  monarchy,  the  successive  work  of  several 
of  its  kings  ;  and  as  such,  still  exhibit,  after  a  lapse 
of  twenty-two  centuries,  in  the  judgment  of  the  first 
architectural  authority  in  England,  "  by  far  the  most 
remarkable  group  of  buildings  now  existing  in  this 
part  of  Asia."  *  All  the  buildings  stand  on  one 
and  the  same  platform,  on  various  levels,  but  no 
where  at  a  less  height  above  the  plain  than  twenty- 
two  feet ;  the  projecting  spur  of  the  adjoining  moun- 
tain having  been  first  partially  levelled,  and  then 
built  up  wherever  requisite.  All  round  the  platform 
are  great  retaining  walls,  composed  of  vast  masses 
of  hewn  stone,  not  of  a  uniform  size,  but  of  larger 
and  smaller  blocks,  wedged  in  together,  after  a 
fashion  not  altogether  unlike  that  often  called  Etrus- 
can. As  many  of  the  individual  stones  measure 
forty-nine  feet  to  fifty-five  feet  in  length,  and  are 
from  6J  to  9!  feet  in  breadth,  great  mechanical 
skill  must  have  been  required  to  remove  from  the 
quarry  such  enormous  weights,  and  to  place  them  so 
as  to  present,  as  they  do,  a  perfectly  smooth  per- 
pendicular wall,  f  Taking  the  mean  of  the  mea- 

*  Fergusson's  Hand-book  of  Architecture,  i.  p.  188. 

f  Supposing  one  of  the  blocks  fifty-five  feet  long  and  nine  feet 
broad,  and  only  half  as  thick  as  broad,  it  would,  if  in  limestone, 
weigh  above  fifteen  tons,  and  if  in  marble,  considerably  more 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  IOJ 

surements  of  those  travelers  who  can  the  best  be 
relied  on,  Mr.  Fergusson  estimates  the  greatest 
length  and  breadth  of  the  platform  at  1,500  and 
950  feet  respectively. 

The  outline  of  this  remarkable  platform  is  ir- 
regular, a  fact  probably  due  to  the  nature  of  the 
ground ;  the  present  level  is  also  very  uneven,  owing 
chiefly  to  the  vast  accumulation  on  it  of  fallen  ruins: 
to  the  north,  the  native  rock  shows  marks  of  the 
tools  by  which  the  upper  portions  were  hewn  down; 
and  in  the  adjacent  quarries  are  still  many  slabs 
carved  and  ready  for  removal.  It  is  clear,  therefore, 
that  here,  as  is  the  case  with  some  of  the  great 
buildings  in  Egypt,  additions  contemplated  were 
never  carried  into  effect.  The  arrangement  of  the 
buildings  on  and  within  the  boundary  of  the  great 
platform,  will  be  best  understood,  if  it  is  borne  in 
mind  that  they  stand  on  three  distinct  terraces,  each 
varying  in  some  degree  from  the  other,  as  regards 
their  respective  heights  above  the  plain.  Of  these 
there  still  exist — that  to  the  south;  that  about 
twenty-three  feet  above  it ;  that  to  the  north,  about 
thirty-five  feet;  and,  between  these  two,  the  central 
or  upper  terrace,  on  which  repose  the  noblest  re- 
mains, which  is  as  much  as  forty-five  feet. 

To  reach  these  levels  from  the  plain,  and  from  one 
to  the  other,  there  is  a  series  of  gigantic  staircases, 
unique  in  character  and  execution,  which  form  one 
of  the  most  characteristic  features  of  Persepolitan 
art.  Of  these  the  grandest  is  that  towards  the 
northern  end  of  the  west  front,  which  is  still  the 


108  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

only  mode  of  access  from  the  plain  below.  This 
staircase  consists  of  a  vast  double  flight  of  steps, 
rising  from  the  south  and  the  north,  with  a  very  gen- 
tle ascent,  the  height  of  each  step  being  in  no  in- 
stance more  than  four  inches.  Indeed  the  ascent  is 
so  gradual,  that  Sir  R.  K.  Porter  and  other  travelers 
used  to  ride  up  it  on  horseback.  The  width  of  the 
staircase  is  twenty-two  feet,  sufficient  (it  is  said)  to 
allow  ten  horsemen  to  ride  up  it  abreast,  the  blocks 
used  in  their  construction  being  often  so  vast,  as  to 
allow  of  ten  to  fourteen  steps  being  cut  out  of  the 
same  block.  It  is  a  remarkable  peculiarity  in  the 
construction,  that  the  staircase  does  not  project  from 
the  retaining  wall,  but  is,  as  it  were,  taken  out  of  it. 
On  ascending  the  first  flight,  an  oblong  landing- 
place  presents  itself,  whence  springs  a  second  flight 
of  forty-eight  steps ;  while  a  couple  of  corresponding 
staircases  form  a  landing-place  on  the  grand  level  of 
the  platform.  Well  may  Fergusson  exclaim  that  this 
is  "  the  noblest  example  of  a  flight  of  stairs  to  be 
found  in  any  part  of  the  world."*  Several  other 
sets  of  smaller  staircases  occur  in  different  parts  of 
the  platform,  each  one  exhibiting  some  point  of  dif- 
ference worthy  of  attention  in  a  detailed  history  of 
the  site.  It  is  enough  here  to  notice  particularly  the 
one  ascending  from  the  level  of  the  northern  plat- 
form to  the  central  or  upper  terrace.  This  staircase 
consists  of  four  single  flights  of  steps,  two  in  the 
centre  facing  each  other  and  leading  to  a  projecting 

*  Fergusson,  Palaces  of  Nineveh  and  Persepolis,  pp.  102,  103. 


HISTORY   OF    PERSIA.  IOQ 

landing-place,  and  two  others  on  either  side  of  the 
central  flights  at  a  distance  of  about  twenty-one 
yards.  These  steps  are  sixteen  feet  wide;  the  whole 
of  the  upright  sides  are  covered  with  sculptures, 
whereas  the  great  outer  one  from  the  plain  is  un- 
sculptured.  These  sculptures  consist  of,  first,  on  the 
spandrils,  a  lion  devouring  a  bull ;  and  secondly,  in 
the  compartment  between  the  spandrils,  eight  colos- 
sal Persian  guards,  armed  with  a  spear,  sword  or 
shield.  Beyond  the  spandril,  where  it  slopes  so  as 
to  form  a  parapet  for  the  steps,  a  row  of  cypress  trees 
have  been  carved,  and  at  the  end  of  the  parapet,  and 
along  the  whole  of  the  inner  face,  is  a  set  of  small 
figures,  representing  guards  as  before,  but  this  time 
generally  with  the  bow  and  quiver,  instead  of  the 
shield.  Along  the  extreme  edge  of  the  parapet,  ex- 
ternally, was  a  narrow  border  thickly  set  with 
rosettes.  Again,  in  the  long  spaces  between  the  cen- 
tral stairs  and  those  on  either  side  of  them,  are  re- 
petitions of  the  lion  and  bull  sculpture,  while  between 
them  and  the  central  stairs,  the  face  of  the  wall  is 
divided  horizontally  into  three  bands,  each  of  which 
has  once  possessed  its  continuous  row  of  figures. 
The  principal  subject,  both  of  the  right  and  left 
sides,  is  the  bringing  of  tribute  to  the  king  by  vari- 
ous subject  nations.  Three  blank  spaces  have  been 
left,  probably  in  each  case  for  inscriptions ;  in  one 
instance  only,  however,  has  this  been  carried  into 
effect,  viz.  on  the  right  hand  or  western  end  of  the 
staircase,  where  may  be  plainly  read,  "  Xerxes  the 
great  king,  the  king  of  kings,  the  son  of  king  Darius, 


110  HISTORY   OF    PERSIA. 

the  Achsemenian."  The  usual  Assyrian  and  Scythic 
versions  have  been  here  omitted.*  On  another  stair- 
case is  a  tablet  with  the  name  of  Ochus.  Mr.  Rich 
also  noticed  another  staircase  cut  out  of  the  solid 
rock,  and  serving  as  a  means  of  communication 
between  the  southern  and  central  terraces. 

The  principal  buildings  on  the  platform  are  five  in 
number,  four  on  the  central  or  upper  terrace,  and 
one  at  its  end  towards  the  mountain.  Three  of  the 
first  class  may  be  conveniently  named  from  their 
respective  founders,  the  "  Palaces  "  of  Darius,  Xerx- 
es, and  Artaxerxes  III.,  Ochus:  the  fourth,  is  the 
great  pillared  hall,  called  by  Professor  Rawlinson, 
"The  Hall  of  Audience."  To  the  fifth  no  other 
name  can  be  given  but  that  of  the  "  Eastern  Edifice. " 
The  palace  of  Darius  was  on  the  western,  and  highest 
part  of  the  platform,  and  exhibits  remains  of  several 
chambers,  with  external  rooms,  apparently  guard- 
rooms, from  the  sculpture  on  the  jambs  of  their  door- 
ways of  gigantic  guards,  armed  with  spears.  Behind 
each  guard-room  was  a  principal  room,  fifty  feet 
square,  the  roof  having  been  originally  supported  by 
sixteen  pillars,  the  bases  of  which  only  now  remain. 
The  only  sculptures  found  in  or  near  these  rooms,  on 
the  jambs  of  the  door-ways,  are  reliefs  representing 
the  king,  followed  by  two  attendants,  one  of  whom 
holds  the  umbrella  over  his  head,  and  the  other  a 
cloth  and  a  fly-flapper ;  or,  engaged  in  forcing  back 

*  There  would  seem  to  be  six  other  staircases  with  double  nights, 
two  of  which  belong  to  the  "  Palace  of  Darius  "  and  two  to  that  ol 
"  Xerxes." 


HISTORY   OF    PERSIA.  Ill 

and  slaying  a  lion  or  some  other  monster,  who  is  ap- 
parently trying  to  make  his  way  into  the  palace.  In 
the  rear  are  traces  of  several  smaller  apartments. 

The  measurements,  conducted  by  Messrs.  Flandin 
and  Coste  on  the  spot,  have  not  determined  whether 
this  building  ever  had  an  upper  story,  but  Mr. 
Fergusson  has  inferred  from  the  'Tomb  of  Darius 
(which  we  shall  describe  presently),  that  the  pillars 
must  have  been  intended  to  support  such  a  story  as 
is  there  indicated.  As  only  the  bases  have  been 
found,  it  is  likely  that  the  pillars  themselves  were  of 
wood,  thin  and  light,  perhaps  of  cedar,  or  of  some 
other  rare  and  valuable  timber,*  and  doubtless 
richly  overlaid  with  precious  metals  or  brilliant 
colors.  As  in  other  cases,  the  existing  remains  here 
are  probably  those  of  "  Halls  of  Audience,"  while 
the  private  apartments  of  the  great  king,  "the 
king's  house,"  of  the  Bible,  were  doubtless  contigu- 
ous, but  somewhat  behind ;  distinct  again  from  them, 
as  now,  in  all  Muhammedan  countries,  and  in  con- 
formity with  the  graphic  details  in  the  story  of 
Esther,  was  the  "Women's  House  :"f  for  all  of 
them,  there  is  ample  room  on  the  great  platform. 

The  Palace  of  Xerxes  differs  little  from  that  of 
Darius,  except  that  it  is  still  larger,  the  principal 
hall  being  eighty,  instead  of  fifty  feet  square,  with 
thirty-six,  instead  of  sixteen  pillars,  to  carry  the 

*  Polybius  states  this  of  the  palace  at  Ecbatana  (x.  c.  27).  In 
some  of  the  recent  excavations  in  Southern  Babylonia,  beams  of 
teak  have  been  found,  which  prove  an  early  intercourse  with  India. 

fEsth.  ii.   12-14. 


112  HISTORY   OF    PERSIA. 

roof.  Two  of  the  larger  of  the  side  apartments,  had 
also  each  four  supporting  pillars,  and  by  setting  the 
chief  structure  well  back  on  the  platform,  room  has 
been  obtained  for  a  magnificently  wide  terrace.  In 
ornamentation,  the  combats  of  the  king  with  the 
lions  or  monsters,  is  replaced  by  attendants,  who 
bring  articles  for  the  toilette  or  the  table,  perhaps 
indicating  as  does  also  the  architecture,  the  rapidly 
increasing  growth  of  luxury.  If,  indeed,  the  Aha- 
suerus  of  Esther  be  the  Xerxes  of  history,  the  gen- 
eral description  in  chapter  ii.,  especially,  and  that 
of  the  great  banquet  given  by  Esther,  fully  corrobo- 
rate what  we  learn  elsewhere,  of  the  luxury  of  the 
Court  in  those  later  days.  The  Palace  of  Ochus,  in 
its  leading  features,  would  seem  to  have  been  much 
like  that  of  Xerxes,  but  is  now  too  ruined  to  be 
worth  describing. 

The  fifth  structure  is  what  we  have  called  the 
Eastern  Palace.  Here  (if  indeed  Cyrus  built  any- 
thing) it  is  probable  that  we  see  his  work;  a  smaller 
building  on  a  platform,  not  so  high  as  that  of  Darius, 
yet  bearing  a  remarkable  resemblance  to  it.  No  in- 
scriptions have  as  yet  been  discovered  here,  nor 
traces  of  the  usual  accompanying  chambers;  but  the 
fragments  remaining  are  peculiarly  massive,  and  the 
sculpture  in  very  bold  relief.  As  it  faces  the  north, 
Professor  Rawlinson  suggests  that  it  may  have  been 
built  by  Darius  as  a  summer  palace. 

I  have  now  noticed  all  the  buildings  that  were  in- 
tended more  or  less  for  purposes  of  habitation.  Be- 
sides these,  however,  are  the  Propylsea,  (gate-ways 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  113 

and  guard  chambers)  commanding  the  entrances  to 
the  principal  buildings,  together  with  remains  of 
other  halls  of  vast  size/probably  once  throne  rooms. 
The  former  would  seem  to  have  been  four  in  number : 
one  of  the  largest,  directly  opposite  the  centre  of  the 
landing  place  from  the  plain,  consisting  of  a  great 
hall,  eighty-two  feet  square,  with  a  roof  supported 
by  four  columns,  each  between  fifty  and  sixty  feet 
high ;  its  walls  were  fully  sixteen  feet  thick,  and  the 
portals  (each  twelve  feet  wide  and  thirty-six  high), 
pointed  respectively  to  the  head  of  the  stairs,  or  to 
the  east.  As  is  the  case  in  the  Assyrian  palaces,  both 
of  these  portals  were  flanked  by  colossal  man -headed 
bulls,  which  still  retain,  though  much  injured  by 
their  long  exposure  to  the  weather  and  to  the  ra- 
pacity of  man,  much  of  their  original  grandeur. 
The  remarkable  preservation  of  many  of  the  finest 
of  the  Assyrian  monuments  is  due,  it  must  be  remem- 
bered, to  the  fortunate  accident  of  their  burial,  soon 
after  the  fall  of  Nineveh,  in  the  soft  clay,  mainly 
produced  by  the  disintegration  of  the  unburnt 
bricks,  of  which  the  walls  they  decorated  were  com- 
posed. 

One  distinguishing  feature,  indeed,  of  Persepolis 
is,  that  the  walls  have  wholly  disappeared,  notwith- 
standing their  enormous  thickness ;  hence  Mr.  Fer- 
gusson  has  conjectured  that  they  were  made  entirely 
of  clay,  which,  in  the  lapse  of  centuries,  would  perish 
under  the  influence  of  the  winter  rains  and  summer 
suns.  Professor  Rawlinson,  on  the  other  hand,  sug- 
gests that  they  may  have  been  constructed  of  small 
H 


114  -HISTORY  OF    PERSIA. 

stones,  which  the  natives  of  the  neighborhood  would 
be  able  and  glad  to  carry  off  for  their  own  purposes. 
It  is  not  necessary  to  discuss  here  the  meaning  of 
the  monsters  and  other  mythical  animals  visible  on 
Persepolitan  sculptures ;  but  I  may  remark,  that 
throughout  Pagan  mythology,  the  lion  and  the  bull 
are  usual  emblems  of  force  and  power ;  just  as  in  the 
Bible,  the  horns  of  an  animal  are  symbols  of  might 
and  strength,  of  success  and  dominion.  Thus  Daniel 
says,  "  The  great  horn  which  is  between  his  eyes,  is 
the  first  king."  There  is  also  a  famous  passage  in 
Ezekiel,*  the  imagery  of  which  some  have  thought 
was  suggested  by  the  Ninevite  monuments  he  might 
have  seen  while  yet  uncovered.  Again,  Alexander 
the  Great  is  called  in  Oriental  history  Zu' } I- K amain, 
or  "he  of  the  two  horns,"  in  allusion,  perhaps,  to 
his  claim  of  descent  from  Jupiter  Ammon,  perpetu- 
ated as  this  is  also  on  the  coins,  believed  to  bear  his 
portrait.  Daniel  also  (as  we  have  seen)  foretells  the 
establishment  of  his  empire,  under  the  combination 
of  human  and  bestial  types.f 

Three  other  buildings  remain,  which  have  all  had 
Propyl&a,  but  they  are  much  mutilated,  and  their 
purposes  have  not  therefore  been  determined.  One 
of  these  has  been  supposed  by  Sir  R.  K.  Porter  to 
represent  the  building  said  to  have  been  fired  by 
Alexander  the  Great ;  but  if  so,  careful  examination 
of  the  remaining  stone-work  would  surely  show  some 
traces  of  the  calcining  action  of  intense  heat.  On 
the  other  hand,  we  should  have  supposed  that  if 

*  Ezek.  i.  7,  9-10.  f  Daniel  vii.  4. 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  1 15 

Alexander  did  really  destroy  by  fire  any  building  at 
Persepolis,  he  would  have  chosen  for  this  barbarism, 
the  finest  building  on  the  platform,  and  not  one 
certainly  inferior  to  some  of  the  others. 

Of  the  Chehl  Minar  or  great  pillared  Hall  of 
Audience  (sometimes  called  "  The  Hall  of  One  Hun- 
dred Columns"),  which  we  must  now  describe,  Mr. 
Fergusson  remarks,  "  We  have  no  cathedral  in  Eng- 
land which  at  all  comes  near  it  in  dimensions ;  nor 
indeed  in  France  or  Germany  is  there  one  that 
covers  so  much  ground.  Cologne  comes  nearest  to 
it  ...  but,  of  course,  the  comparison  is  hardly  fair, 
as  these  buildings  had  stone  roofs,  and  were  far 
higher.  But  in  linear  horizontal  dimensions,  the 
only  edifice  of  the  Middle  Ages  that  comes  up  to  it, 
is  Milan  Cathedral,  which  covers  107,800  feet,  and 
(taken  all  in  all)  is  perhaps,  the  building  that  resem- 
bles it  most  in  style  and  in  the  general  character  of 
the  effect  it  must  have  produced  on  the  spectator."* 
This  great  hall  was  approached  by  a  portico,  about 
183  feet  long,  and  fifty-two  deep,  its  roof  being  sus- 
tained by  sixteen  pillars,  thirty-five  feet  high,  ar- 
ranged in  two  rows  of  eight  each.  Behind  this  por- 
tico was  the  great  chamber  itself,  a  square  of  227 
feet,  believed  (from  calculation,  rather  than  from 
actually  existing  remains)  to  have  been  supported  by 
100  columns  of  the  same  height  as  those  of  the  por- 
tico, in  ten  rows  of  ten  each.  The  walls  inclosing 
it  were  about  ten-and-a-half  feet  thick,  with  two  door- 

*  Fergusson,  Palaces,  pp.  171-2.     Handbook  of  Architecture,  i. 
p.  197. 


Il6  HISTORY  OF   PERSIA. 

ways  at  each  end,  exactly  opposite  the  one  to  the 
other.  In  the  spaces  of  the  wall,  on  either  side  of  the 
doorways,  to  the  east,  west,  and  south,  were  three 
niches,  all  carrying  the  usual  square  tops  of  the  Per- 
sepolitan  windows  and  doors.  No  trace  remains 
here,  as  in  the  case  of  the  other  "halls,"  of  any 
smaller  buildings  attached  to  it.  All  the  ornamen- 
tation indicates  that  the  building  was  intended  for 
public  purposes,  as  here  the  monarch  is  seen  sitting 
on  his  throne,  under  a  canopy,  with  the  tiara  on  his 
head,  or  engaged  in  destroying  symbolical  monsters. 
Again,  on  the  jambs  of  the  great  doors  is  the  same 
representation  of  seated  majesty,  while  below  him 
are  guards,  arranged  five  and  five;  the  whole  num- 
ber of  figures  represented  amounting  to  two  hundred. 
On  the  doors  at  the  back  of  the  building,  the  throne 
is  represented  as  raised  upon  a  lofty  platform,  the 
stages  of  which,  three  in  number,  are  supported  by 
figures  differently  dressed,  perhaps  to  indicate  the 
natives  of  different  provinces. 

"It  is  a  reasonable  conjecture,"  adds  Professor 
Rawlinson,  "that  this  great  hall  was  intended  espe- 
cially for  a  throne-room,  and  that,  in  the  represen- 
tations on  these  doorways,  we  have  figured  a  struc- 
ture which  actually  existed  under  its  roof."  I  ought 
to  add  that  of  the  116  pillars,  once  in  the  hall  and 
porch,  eight  bases  only  have  as  yet  been  discovered, 
six  in  the  hall,  and  two  in  the  porch,  but  I  cannot 
help  thinking  that  if  another  Layard  will  do  for  Per- 
sepolis  one-half  he  did  for  Nineveh,  much  more  may 
yet  be  found,  and  many  unsolved  problems  set  at 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  117 

rest.  In  front  of  the  portico  of  the  "  Hall  of  a 
Hundred  Columns,"  still  stand  the  mutilated  remains 
of  what  were  probably  man-headed  bulls,  though  it 
must  be  admitted,  that  this  is  not  quite  certain, 
owing  to  their  present  ruined  state.  The  columns 
and  the  composite  capitals,  of  this  portico,  are  of  the 
same  character  as  those  in  the  Eastern  Palace,  the 
blocks  of  stone  being  often  ten  feet  square  by  seven 
thick;  hence  Professor  Rawlinson  infers  that  this 
room  may  have  served  as  the  audience  chamber  of  its 
builder. 

We  come  now  to  the  last,  but,  on  the  whole,  the 
greatest  work  on  the  whole  platform,  another  great 
"  Hall  of  Audience,"  the  remains  of  which,  stretch- 
ing 350  feet  in  one  direction,  and  256  feet  in  the 
other,  comprehend  more  than  20,000  square  feet. 
Its  existing  ruins  consist  almost  wholly  of  four 
groups  of  enormous  pillars,  of  the  extraordinary 
height  of  sixty-four  feet,  carrying  capitals  formed  of 
either  two  half-gryphons  or  two  half-bulls,  back  to 
back,  and  themselves  varying  considerably  from 
plain  and  simple  fluting,  to  a  remarkable  richness 
of  ornamentation.  The  bases  of  the  columns  are 
of  great  beauty,  in  form  bell-shaped,  and  adorned 
with  a  double  or  triple  row  of  pendent  lotus-leaves, 
some  rounded,  and  some  narrowed  to  a  point.  Capi- 
tals and  bases  perfectly  resembling  these,  and 
scarcely  inferior  to  them  in  beauty  of  execution, 
were  found  by  Mr.  Loftus,  in  his  excavations  at  Susa. 
There  can  be  little  doubt  that  these  halls  were  once 
covered  with  a  wooden  roof,  the  double-bull  capital 


Il8  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

being  admirably  adapted  to  support  the  ends  of  the 
beams.  Indeed  the  use  of  such  capitals  is  perfectly 
evident,  from  the  copy  in  stone  of  a  timber  roof 
observable  in  the  famous  tomb  of  Darius  at  Nakhsh-i- 
Rustam. 

The  architectural  controversy,  as  to  what  the  walls 
round  this  gigantic  room  were  made  of,  need  not 
be  discussed ;  the  more  so  as  it  must  be  confessed, 
that  all  the  theories  proposed  involve  grave  difficul- 
ties. Judging  from  other  cases,  had  the  walls  been 
of  stone,  we  should  expect  to  find  some  traces  of 
them  ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  hard  to  believe 
such  a  builder  as  Xerxes,  with  an  unlimited  supply 
of  stone  close  at  hand,  would  have  used  bricks, 
which  were  a  necessity  for  the  Assyrians  and  Baby- 
lonians, as  for  them  stone  had  to  be  brought  from  a 
considerable  distance.  After  all,  the  most  probable 
description  is  that  in  Esther,  evidently  an  account 
of  a  summer  throne-room.  "  And  when  those  days 
were  expired,  the  king  made  a  feast  unto  all  the 
people  that  were  present  in  Shushan  the  palace,  unto 
great  and  small,  seven  days,  in  the  court  of  the  gar- 
den of  the  king's  palace :  where  were  white,  green, 
and  blue  hangings,  fastened  with  cords  of  fine  linen, 
and  purple  to  silver  rings,  and  pillars  of  marble ;  the 
beds  were  of  gold  and  silver,  upon  a  pavement  of 
red,  blue,  and  white  and  black  marble."*  The  heat 
of  an  ordinary  Persian  summer,  suggests  the  proba- 
bility of  such  an  arrangement,  indeed,  Loftus,  in  his 
notice  of  his  excavations  at  Susa,  remarks  that 

*  Esther  i.  5-6. 


HISTORY   OF    PERSIA.  1 19 

"  nothing  could  be  more  appropriate  than  this 
method  at  Susa  and  Persepolis,  the  spring  residences 
of  the  Persian  monarchs.  It  must  be  considered 
that  these  columnar  halls  were  the  equivalents  of  the 
modern  throne-rooms ;  here  all  public  business  was 
despatched,  and  here  the  king  might  sit  and  enjoy 
the  beauties  of  the  landscape."* 

Such  must  serve  for  some  account  of  the  far-famed 
Persepolis.  In  concluding  this  portion  of  my  book, 
I  will  only  say  a  few  words  on  the  remaining  palaces 
known  to  have  belonged  to  the  Persian  kings  of  the 
Achaemenian  dynasty,  and  shall  then  briefly  notice 
some  of  their  tombs. 

The  other  palaces  are  the  ruins  found  at  Murghab, 
near  the  tomb  of  Cyrus ;  at  Istakhr,  on  the  edge  of 
the  valley  leading  thence  to  Persepolis ;  and  at  Susa. 
Those  at  Ecbatana  and  in  the  town  of  Persepolis 
have  scarcely  left  even  ruins.  One  of  these  structures 
at  Murghab,  as  bearing  the  well-known  inscription, 
"  I  am  Cyrus  the  king,  the  Achaemenian,"  has  been 
reasonably  supposed  to  have  been  occupied,  if  not 
built  by  him.  This  building  appears  to  be  in  form 
an  oblong,  of  147  feet  by  116.  Within  it  stands  a 
single  shaft,  36  feet  high,  and  on  the  paved  area 
around,  are  the  remains  of  the  basis  of  seven  similar 
columns.  If  Messrs.  Flandin  and  Coste  are  right, 
there  were  three  rows,  each  containing  four  pillars 
originally  ;  and  this  number  of  rows  corresponds,  as 
Professor  Rawlinson  has  remarked,  to  the  number  in 
Solomon's  House  of  the  Forest  of  Lebanon. "f  The 

*  Loftus,  Chaldaea  and  Susiana,  p.  375.        f  i  Kings  vii.  8 


120  HISTORY   OF  PERSIA. 

smaller  building,  which  is  hard  by,  is  a  longer 
oblong,  of  125  feet  by  50.  It  is  in  front  of  this 
building  that  the  square  column  stands,  with  the 
mythological  relief  on  it,  which  we  have  already  de- 
scribed. There  is  also  in  the  immediate  neighbor- 
hood, the  remains  of  a  platform  of  huge  square 
stones,  rusticated,  after  a  fashion,  not  unlike  the 
substructions  of  the  temple  at  Jerusalem,  recently 
brought  to  light  by  the  excavations  of  the  Palestine 
Fund.  Mr.  Rich,  who  has  described  it  fully,  men- 
tions one  stone  fourteen  feet  two  inches  long ;  and 
Flandin  and  Coste  more  than  one  so  enormous  as 
thirty-two  feet  nine  inches  in  length.  The  outline  of 
the  palace  at  Istakhr  is  well  preserved,  though  only  one 
column,  twenty-five  feet  high,  is  standing,  with  the 
basis  of  eight  others.  The  walls  have  been  partially 
traced,  and  the  jambs  of  several  doorways  detected. 
The  palace  at  Susa  has  been  fully  described,  from 
his  excavations  there,  by  Mr.  Loftus,  and  is  evidently 
in  form  a  duplicate  of  Darius' s  palace  at  Persepolis. 
It  stood,  however,  on  a  platform  of  sundried  brick, 
originally  constructed  at  a  very  remote  period,  pro- 
bably by  some  of  the  Kushite  or  Accadian  rulers  of 
Susiana.  An  inscription  repeated  on  the  basis  of 
four  pillars,  proves  that  the  building,  resting  on  this 
mass  of  early  brickwork,  was  erected  originally  by 
Darius;  while  another  inscription  confirms  its  re- 
paration by  Artaxerxes  I.  (Longimanus).  It  was  at 
Susa,  it  will  be  remembered,  that  Daniel  saw  the 
vision  of  the  ram  with  the  two  horns.  "  And  I  saw 
in  a  vision,  and  it  came  to  pass,  when  I  saw,  that  I 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  121 


Tomb  of  Darius. 


122  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

was  at   Shushan,    in   the  palace,  which   is   in   the 
province  of  Elam ;  and  I  saw  in  a  vision,"*  &c. 

The  remaining  tombs  of  the  kings  of  Persia  show 
much  resemblance  to  the  tombs  in  Lycia  and  at 
Petra,  in  so  far  that  they  are  formed  by  excavations 
on  the  sides  of  the  hills,  generally  at  a  considerable 
height  above  the  ground.  Of  this  peculiar  class  of 
tombs  there  appear  to  be  seven  ;  four  in  the  valley  of 
the  Pulwar,  to  the  northwest,  and  three  near  to  Per- 
sepolis  itself.  They  are  all  on  the  same  plan,  con- 
sisting generally  of  an  upper  space,  in  which  the 
king  is  represented  worshiping  Ormazd  ;  and  under 
this  what  might  be  a  portico,  but  that  the  four 
columns  are  all  engaged ; — that  is,  are  really  pilasters 
carved  on  the  face  of  the  rock,  into  the  similitude  of 
pillars.  In  the  middle  is  an  apparent  door  way,  though 
the  actual  entrance  into  the  tomb  is  below  and  behind 
the  ornamental  front.  Of  all  these,  by  far  the  most 
famous,  is  the  one  known  from  the  Cuneiform  inscrip- 
tion on  it,  to  be  that  of  Darius,  the  son  of  Hystaspes. 
It  is  situated  at  Nakhsh-i-Rustam,  about  four  miles 
from  Persepolis,  and  has  near  it  another  tomb  of  near- 
ly the  same  character,  though  less  richly  ornamented. 
In  their  interiors  these  tombs  show  considerable  dif- 
ferences. It  is  further  worthy  of  note,  that  the  tombs 
immediately  above  Persepolis,  are  more  richly  de- 
corated than  the  others,  the  lintels  and  sideposts  of 
the  doors  being  covered  with  rosettes,  and  the  entab- 
lature above  the  cornice  bearing  a  row  of  lions  facing 
one  another,  on  each  side  toward  the  centre. 

*  Dan.  viii.  2. 


CHAPTER    V. 

Arsacidae— Arsakes  I— Tiridates  I— Artabanus— Mithradates  I— 
Phraates  II — Scythian  invasion- -Mithradates  II — Progress  of 
the  Romans — Orodes — Crassus — Pompey — Antony— Tiridates, 
son  of  Vologases— Trajanus — Avidius  Cassius— Severus—  Arta- 
banus— Battle  of  Nisibis. 

As  already  stated,  with  the  death  of  Darius  ends 
for  more  than  five  centuries  the  rule  of  native  Per- 
sian sovereigns  over  more,  perhaps,  than  the  small 
province  of  Persis :  I  shall,  therefore,  now  give  some 
account  of  the  Arsacidae,  whose  vigorous  rule  fills 
up  the  intervening  period. 

It  was  in  the  reign  of  Antiochus  Theos,  the  third 
of  the  Seleucidae  or  Greek  rulers  of  Syria  and  Meso- 
potamia, and  about  B.C.  250,  that  Askh  or  Arsaces 
slew  the  viceroy  of  Parthia,  and  spreading  to  the 
winds  the  sacred  banner  of  the  Darafsh-i-Kawani 
(or  Blacksmith's  apron),  which  his  uncle  had  saved, 
after  the  overthrow  of  Arbela,  marched  on  Rhages 
(Rhey),  at  the  same  time  inviting  the  other  chief- 
tains of  his  people  to  join  with  him  in  a  revolt 
against  the  Greek  kings  of  Syria. 

Oriental  writers  claim  Askh,  though  on  no  relia- 
ble grounds,  as  a  descendant  of  the  ancient  kings  of 
Persia ;  but  it  is  more  probable  that  his  revolt  was 
mainly  due  to  the  success  of  a  similar  uprising 

123 


124  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

against  the  Seleucidse  a  few  years  earlier,  on  the  part 
of  the  Bactrian  Diodotus,  showing,  as  this  did,  the 
then  weakened  hold  of  the  ruling  family  over  their 
more  distant  provinces.     The  two  revolts,  however, 
differed  essentially  in  their  character ;  the  one  being 
of  Greek  against  Greek,  and  under  a  Greek  leader, 
the  other  "of  an  Asiatic  race  of  a  savage  and  rude 
type,"  against  a  more  civilized  and  effeminate  popu- 
lation.    Besides  this,  there  had    been  for  years  a 
tendency  on  the  part  of  the  Parthian  tribes  to  sepa- 
rate themselves  from  the  Persians,  a  tendency  fos- 
tered, doubtless,  in  no  small  degree  by  the  ancient 
enmity  between  the  Magians  and  Zoroastrians.     It 
was,   in   fact,   the   old   story  over   again.      As   the 
Achaemenidae,  when  they  were  strong,  had  tried  to 
stamp  out  Magism,  so  the  Magians  retorted  when- 
ever they  had  the  chance.     The  spring  had,  indeed, 
been  pressed  flat,  yet  had  not  lost  its  elasticity ;  and 
the  fall  of  Darius  Codomannus  probably  aroused  new 
hopes  for  the  down -trodden  Magians,  the  more  so 
that  the  Seleucid  Greeks,  "cared  for  none  of  these 
things."     We   must    not,  however,   lay  too    much 
stress  on  the  religious  side  of  the  question  ;  no   re- 
formation such  as  that  by  the  Achgemenian   Darius 
or  the  Sassanian  Ardashir,  was  dreamt  of;  indeed, 
the  actual   faith  of  the  Parthians  was  lax  and  all- 
embracing,  a   mixture   of   Scythic    dogmas,  Greek 
practices,  and  Semitic  ideas,  while  the  hostility  of 
the  ruling  families  was  rather  anti-Persian  than  any- 
thing else.     Thus  we  find  the  Parthians  setting  up 
the  statues  of  Greek  divinities  and  adopting  Greek 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  I2J 

as  the  usual  language  of  their  coins,  and  affecting  the 
titles  of  Phil-Hellenes,  even  when  most  hostile  to 
the  Greeks. 

A  revolt  in  many  ways  similar  took  place  again, 
as  we  shall  see,  five  hundred  years  afterwards,  when, 
in  its  turn,  the  oppressive  rule  of  the  Arsacidae  had 
disgusted  the  subject  population,  and  when,  from 
wars  and  other  causes,  they  held  the  reins  of  power 
with  less  vigor  than  at  first :  then  it  was,  that  the 
leaven  of  Zoroastrianism  again  swelled  the  masses, 
and  the  sceptre  passed  away  from  the  house  of 
Arsakes.  It  is  likely,  too,  that  the  suppression  or 
banishment  of  the  Zoroastrian  Magi,*  or  more  purely 
native  priesthood,  had  kept  alive,  especially  in  the 
more  strictly  Persian  districts,  during  the  whole 
period  of  the  Arsacidan  rule,  an  undying  hatred  of 
their  oppressors ;  for  the  government  of  this  family 
throughout  was  one  of  mere  force  ;  the  power  of  the 
chief  monarch  being  supported  by  customs  which 
exhibit  some  analogy  with  the  feudal  system  of  the 
Middle  Ages. 

About  the  year  B.C.  150,  we  find  the  Arsacidan 
family  divided  into  five  principal  branches,  i.  That 
of  Persia  including  Parthia,  whose  chief  was  always 
the  admitted  head  of  the  rest,  the  "king  of  kings." 

*  The  Magi,  or  priests  of  the  religion  of  Zoroaster,  must  not  be 
confounded  with  Magism,  though,  as  we  learn  from  the  story  of 
the  Magophonia,  Magus  was  the  common  name  for  the  priests  of 
Magism  or  elemental  worship,  as  well  as  of  Zoroastrianism.  The 
Magi  seem  originally  to  have  been  a  Median  tribe  (Herod,  i.  101), 
but  to  have,  subsequently,  under  the  Persian  rule,  taken  an  active 
part  in  promoting  Zoroastrianism. 


126  HISTORY  OF    PERSIA. 

2.  That  of  Armenia.  3.  That  of  Bactria  and  of  the 
adjacent  provinces.  4.  That  of  Georgia.  5.  That 
of  the  Massagetae.  Roughly  speaking,  it  was  a  form 
of  alliance,  loosely  enough  interpreted,  when  there 
was  no  external  foe,  and  liable  to  constantly  recur- 
ring international  feuds  and  wars.  When,  however, 
any  of  the  separate  provinces  was  threatened  or  as- 
sailed by  an  enemy  from  without,  all  alike  joined  to 
repel  the  common  foe  ;  hence,  when  Rome  attacked 
Parthia,  the  outlying  districts  of  Georgia  and  the 
Caucasus  at  once  united  in  its  defence.  That  such 
a  system  should  have  so  long  prevailed,  implies  no 
inconsiderable  power  of  concentration,  and  it  is 
likely  it  would  have  endured  much  longer  than  it 
did  but  for  the  exterminating  wars  with  the  Romans 
in  which  it  was  ultimately  involved.  Add  to  this, 
that  many  of  the  younger  princes  of  the  house  had, 
by  that  time,  tasted  in  Rome  luxuries  of  which  they 
had  scant  experience  in  their  mountain  homes,  and 
(as  Juvenal  has  remarked)  had  returned  to  Artaxata 
with  habits  very  different  from  those  of  their  frugal 
and  hardy  ancestors.* 

The  reign  of  Arsakes  I. ,  lasted  only  two  years ; 
and  he  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  secured  his  power 

*  I  may  here  observe,  en  passant,  that  for  the  early  history  of 
the  Arsacidae,  we  are  almost  wholly  indebted  to  the  Roman  writers, 
as  we  are  for  the  later  times  to  the  Armenian  chronicles  :  the  Arsa- 
cidae, indeed,  left  no  personal  memorial  but  their  coins.  The  more 
modern  Persian  writers  notice  their  rulers  only  as  Muluk-al-Thu- 
waif,  ''  Chiefs  of  bands."  The  Shah-nameh  of  Firdusi  has  only 
three  or  four  pages  for  the  whole  500  years  of  their  history,  while 
the  Seleucidse  are  not  even  mentioned, 


HISTORY  OF   PERSIA.  127 

when  he  was  killed  in  battle.  His  successor,  how- 
ever, Tiridates  I.,  was,  fortunately  for  his  family,  a 
man  of  great  ablility,  and  to  him  is  due  the  con- 
solidation of  the  empire  of  which  Arsakes  had  laid 
the  foundations.*  With  him,  known  in  history  as 
Arsakes  II.,  arose  the  practice  of  double  names  for 
each  monarch,  the  one  his  private,  the  other  his 
dynastic  designation ;  and  as  the  Romano-Greek 
writers  have  preserved  many  of  these  private  names, 
we  are  thus  able  to  determine  correctly  most  of  their 
dates. 

In  the  early  part  of  his  reign,  Tiridates  annexed 
Hyrcania,  and,  not  long  after,  persuading  the  son 
of  the  Bactrian  Diodotus  to  throw  in  his  lot  with 
him,  the  confederates  completely  defeated  the  whole 
forces  of  the  Seleucid  Callinicus.  Can  we  wonder 
that  the  Parthians  yearly  celebrated,  by  a  solemn 
anniversary,  the  remembrance  of  a  victory,  which 
must  have  been  the  result  of  a  very  unequal  struggle? 
From  this  period  till  his  death,  Tiridates  was  peace- 
fully employed  in  building  his  famous  city  of  Dara 
or  Dariaeum,  the  site  of  which  had  not  yet  been  dis- 
covered by  the  zeal  or  the  imagination  of  Eastern 
travelers.  His  son  and  successor,  Artabanus,  taking 
advantage  of  a  war  between  Antiochus  III.,  and  one 

*  The  original  centre  of  the  Arsacidan  rule,  was  around  the  mid- 
dle of  the  Caspian  Sea  ;  and  their  advance  into  the  valley  of  the 
Tigris  was  gradual.  Moreover,  though  at  times  they  held  the  whole 
country  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  the  foundation  by  Antiochus  Theos  of 
the  town  of  Spasini-Kharax  in  B.C.  140,  as  it  deprived  them  of  a 
direct  trade  with  India,  so  it  prevented  them  from  becoming  a 
naval  as  well  as  military  power. 


128  HISTORY   OF    PERSIA. 

of  his  satraps,  Achaeus,  added  to  his  dominions  the 
district  between  Hyrcania  and  the  Zagros  mountains, 
the  result  being,  as  might  have  been  anticipated,  a 
war  between  the  Parthians  and  the  Seleucidae,  the 
details  of  which  are  wanting.  In  the  end,  however, 
we  know  that  Antiochus  of  Syria  made  peace  with 
his  troublesome  neighbor,  and,  by  recognizing  his 
independence,  showed  he  had  found  his  match,  if 
not  his  superior,  in  the  Parthian  king.  From  this 
time  to  the  close  of  the  reign  of  Artabanus,  we  find 
nothing  certain  in  Parthian  history,  nor  is  it  worth 
while  to  attempt  the  unraveling  of  a  skein  so  en- 
tangled. 

With  the  reign  of  Mithradates  L,  (B.C.  174), 
Parthia  takes  a  leap  in  advance,  and  acquires  dimen- 
sions fully  justifying  Professor  Rawlinson  in  the 
name  he  has  given  to  it,  of  "The  Sixth  Oriental 
Monarchy."  No  doubt  the  conditions  of  the  time 
favored  the  views  of  Mithradates,  the  Seleucidse 
having  then  lost  much  of  their  original  power,  while 
their  sceptre  was  in  the  hands  of  a  boy,  Eupator, 
with  two  rival  claimants  for  the  regency,  Lysias  and 
Philip.  Mithradates,  therefore,  attacked  Media,  and 
after  a  vigorous  resistance  on  the  part  of  its  inhabit- 
ants, secured  for  himself  the  great  province  of  Media 
Magna.  He  next  added  to  his  dominions  Hyrcania 
on  the  north,  and  Elymais  or  Susiana  on  the  south ; 
and,  by  the  submission  of  the  Persians  and  Baby- 
lonians, extended  his  monarchy  from  the  Hindu- 
Kush  to  the  Euphrates.  How  far  Eastward  he  went 
is  doubtful ;  but  it  has  been  thought  that  he  did  not 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  129 

stay  his  hand  till  he  had  annexed  to  his  domains  the 
Panjab  and  head  waters  of  the  Indus. 

On  this  point,  however,  so  far  as  it  is  worth, 
numismatic  evidence  seems  conclusive,  as  no  Par- 
thian coins  have  been  found  in  this  region  ;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  is  certain  that  Graeco-Bactrian 
monarchs  held  Kabul  and  Western  India,  till  at  least 
B.C.  126.  We  may  fairly  believe  that  his  sway  ex- 
tended over  all  the  countries  west  of  the  Suleiman- 
Koh,  a  tract  estimated  by  Professor  Rawlinson  as 
1,500  miles,  east  and  west,  by  a  breadth  in  some 
parts  more  than  400  miles ;  no  inconsiderable  part 
of  which  comprises  the  most  fertile  regions  of 
Middle  and  Western  Asia.  Envy,  however,  if  no 
better  reasons,  suggested  an  attempt  to  reduce  his 
power,  and  the  Seleucid  ruler  Demetrius  led  an 
attack  he  perhaps  thought  would  be  acceptable  to 
some  of  the  aggrieved  populations  of  the  neighbor- 
hood. In  this,  however,  he  miscalculated  alike  their 
feelings  and  the  real  resources  of  the  Parthian  mon- 
arch. In  one  great  battle  his  army  was  completely 
destroyed,  and  he  himself  was  exhibited  as  a  captive 
though,  as  it  would  seem,  with  the  treatment  due  to 
his  rank,  through  several  of  the  provinces  that  had 
revolted ;  a  warning  to  those  who  should  in  future 
attempt  to  thwart  the  new  Asiatic  empire. 

After  a  thirty-eight  years'  glorious  reign,  which 
fully  entitled  him  to  adopt  the  proud  designation  of 
"  King  of  kings,"  he  was  the  first  of  the  Parthians 
to  assume,  Mithradates  died  B.  c.  136.  This  monarch 
was  also  the  first  to  wear  the  tiara,  or  tall  stiff  crown, 
i 


130  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

which,  with  some  modifications,  remained  the  royal 
head-dress  till  the  final  overthrow  of  the  Sassanian 
dynasty  by  the  Muhammedans,  A.  D.  641.  Like  the 
Achaemenian  kings,  those  of  the  house  of  Arsakes 
occupied  different  residences  according  to  the  season 
of  the  year.  Their  winter  they  generally  spent  at 
Ctesiphon,  and  the  rest  of  the  year  at  Ecbatana 
(Hamadan),  Tape  in  Hyrcania,  or  Rhages  (Rhey). 

Mithradates  was  succeeded  by  his  son  Phraates 
II.,  and  a  war  with  Syria  would  probably  at  once 
have  broken  out  had  not  the  then  ruler  of  Syria, 
Antiochus  Sidetes,  been  afraid  to  leave  in  his  rear 
Judaea,  which  his  predecessor  Demetrius  had  openly 
declared  independent.  The  independence,  however, 
of  the  Jews  did  not  last  long,  and,  their  ruler,  John 
Hyrcanus,  was  compelled  to  admit  the  authority  of 
the  Syrian  monarch,  and  to  pay  tribute,  as  before,  in 
token  of  his  submission  (B.C.  133).*  Antiochus  then 

*  The  gallant  resistance  of  the  Jews  against  Antiochus  Epi- 
phanes  and  the  fearful  end  of  that  impious  king  are  well  told  in 
I  Maccab.  iii.  4,  and  2  Maccab.  i.  9 ;  yet,  bad  as  he  was,  it  seems 
to  me  that  we  are  not  bound  to  consider  him,  even  as  the  Anti- 
Christ  of  the  Old  Testament.  Certainly  he  opposed  God,  in  that 
he  was  very  zealous  for  his  own  false  gods,  as  is  abundantly  shown 
by  Polybius.  The  same  fact  is  clear  from  the  Bible — ''  King  Anti- 
ochus wrote  to  his  whole  kingdom  that  all  should  be  one  people, 
and  every  one  should  leave  his  own  laws  "  (i  Mace.  i.  41,  42) — in 
others  words,  he  wished  to  enforce  an  unbending  state  religion. 
But  the  true  Anti-Christ  would  seem  to  be  an  apostate  from  the 
truth,  not  one,  who,  like  a  heathen,  might  exchange  one  error  for 
another.  His  chief  characteristics  are  self-exaltation,  contempt  of 
all  religion,  blasphemy  against  the  true  God,  and  apostacy  from 
the  God  of  his  fathers. 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  13! 

proposed  an  attack  on  the  Parthians,  and  at  the  first 
was  completely  successful,  winning  three  battles  in 
succession :  in  the  end,  however,  the  hardy  moun- 
taineers were  too  much  for  the  enervated  people  of 
the  plains,  and  Antiochus  and  his  whole  army  were 
destroyed.  Henceforward  Parthia  enjoyed,  unmo- 
lested by  the  Seleucidae  the  power  it  had  acquired 
by  honest  fighting,  indeed,  the  Greeks  were  scarcely 
able  to  maintain  their  now  small  domains  of  Cilicia 
and  Syria  Proper,  encroached  on  as  they  were  alike 
by  Romans,  Egyptians,  and  Arabs.  In  another  sixty 
years,  Syria  became,  as  it  might  have  been  long  be- 
fore, a  Roman  province. 

Phraates  himself  perished  with  the  flower  of  his 
army  in  a  conflict  with  the  Scythians  aided  by  a 
body  of  revolted  Greeks.  These  Scythians,  who  had 
previously  been  in  some  measure  allied  to  the  Par- 
thians (at  least,  so  far  as  their  wandering  habits  per- 
mitted),— were  a  portion  of  the  great  nomad  hordes 
of  Central  Asia,  who  like  the  Cimmerii,  to  whom  we 
have  alluded,  before  historic  times  and  often  since, 
have  swept  down  on  the  fertile,  cultivated  and  com- 
paratively refined  south,  like  a  whirlwind  of  locusts. 
Each  country  in  its  turn  had  to  curse  the  presence 
of  these  savage  and  barbarous  hosts,  and  Parthia  had 
now  to  combat  warriors  as  brave  and  as  active  as  the 
best  of  her  own  people.  To  check  their  first  advance 
the  Parthian  princes  had  paid  them  a  sort  of  black 
mail ;  but  Bactria,  less  fortunate,  was  rapidly  over- 
whelmed to  the  north  and  west. 

The  Scythian  tribes  are  known  under  several  titles, 


132  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

as  the  Massagetae,  Dahse,  Tochari  and  Sakarauli — 
and  their  manners  and  sometimes  cannibal  practices 
are  fully  recorded  in  Herodotus  and  Strabo.  This 
time  again  the  Scythians  were  superior  in  the  con- 
flict, and  another  Parthian  king  (Artabanus  II.)  was 
slain ;  but,  on  the  accession  of  the  next  monarch, 
Mithradates  II.,  termed,  from  his  famous  deeds,  the 
Great,  the  tide  of  Scythian  victory  was  arrested,  and 
they  were  driven  back,  and  compelled  to  pour  their 
superabundant  numbers  into  Seistan  and  the  Eastern 
provinces  of  Persia.* 

Thus  was  formed  the  famous  Indo-Scythic  king- 
dom, of  whose  chieftains  we  have  so  many  monetary 
records.  Occupying,  as  they  did,  the  plains  south 
of  the  Hindu-Kush  between  Bactria  and  the  Panjab, 
and  occasionally  extending  their  power  even  to  the 
mouth  of  the  Indus,  this  Scythian  kingdom  effectually 
separated  India  from  Greece,  and  arrested  the  grow- 
ing influence  of  Greek  manners  and  civilization; 
indeed,  but  for  these  intervening  hordes,  there  seems 
no  reason  why  the  Greek  language  should  not  have 
been  as  well  understood  on  the  Jumna  and  the 
Ganges  as  on  the  Nile.  Having  disposed  of  the 
Scyths,  so  far  as  his  own  country  was  concerned, 
Mithradates  II.  commenced  his  memorable  wars  with 
the  Armenians,  a  people  originally  of  the  same  Tu- 
ranian origin  with  the  Parthians  themselves,  but,  in 

*  The  present  name  of  this  portion  of  Persia,  Seistan  (or  on  the 
coins  Sejestan)  is  a  memorial  of  this  Scythic  invasion,  the  district 
they  occupied  having  been  naturally  called  Sacastene — the  land  of 
the  Sacse. 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  133 

later  years,  owing  to  a  considerable  infusion  of  Aryan 
elements,  the  faithful  allies,  as  a  rule,  of  the  Achae- 
menidae.  The  first  independence  of  Armenia  dates 
from  B.  c.  190,  the  year  in  which  Antiochus  the  Great 
was  defeated  by  the  Romans ;  but,  a  few  years  after- 
wards, Armenia  became  again  for  a  short  time  sub- 
ject to  the  Seleucidae.  No  details  of  the  war  between 
Mithradates  II.  and  the  Armenians  have  been  pre- 
served, but  there  can  be  but  little  doubt  that  their 
resistance  to  the  Parthians  was  as  brief  as  it  was 
unsuccessful. 

Another  event  was,  however,  now  about  to  take 
place,  which  changed  the  whole  character  of  Eastern 
affairs,  and  brought  into  the  plains  of  Asia  a  race 
of  warriors  unsurpassed  by  even  the  Macedonians  of 
Alexander.  The  course  of  their  previous  war  in 
Greece  had  enabled  the  Roman  leaders  to  read  dis- 
tinctly their  future  destiny,  though  they  did  not  at 
first  follow  out  the  line  so  clearly  traced  for  them. 
When  the  consul,  Acilius  Glabrio,  was  about  to  drive 
the  forces  of  Antiochus  from  that  pass  which,  as  has 
been  remarked,  "was  never  stormed,  and  whose  only 
conqueror  has  been  nature,"  he  addressed  his  sol- 
diers in  an  oration  plainly  demonstrating  the  views 
of  these  ambitious  republicans.  "What,"  said  he, 
' '  shall  hinder,  but  that  from  Gades  to  the  Red  Sea 
we  should  have  but  one  boundary,  the  ocean,  who 
holds  the  whole  circuit  of  the  earth  in  his  embraces ; 
and  that  the  whole  race  of  men  should  venerate  the 
Roman  name,  as  second  only  to  the  gods  ?"  Now  it 
was,  that  Latin,  "the  voice  of  empire  and  of  war, 


134  HISTORY   OF    PERSIA. 

the  true  language  of  history,  instinct  with  the  spirit 
of  nations,  and  not  with  the  passions  of  indi- 
viduals," bade  fair  to  become  what  its  half-sister, 
the  Greek,  was  already,  the  common  tongue  of  the 
civilized  world. 

To  the  unbending  rule  of  Rome,  each  nation  in 
its  turn  was  to  yield ;  republics  in  Europe,  mon- 
archies in  Asia,  the  cavalry  of  the  East,  the  foot 
soldiers  of  the  West — all  alike  were  now  to  be  frozen 
up  in  one  iron  uniformity.  "The  mistress  of  the 
world,"  says  Wilberforce,  "sent  forth  her  praetors 
and  proconsuls  to  rule  instead  of  kings ;  vast  roads, 
uniform  and  unbending,  were  the  tracks  she  made 
for  herself  through  the  world,  that  so  the  most  in- 
accessible countries  might  be  laid  open  to  her 
armies ;  and,  in  making  them,  she  hewed  through 
mountains  and  filled  up  vallies,  as  though  the  earth 
was  as  subject  to  her  as  its  inhabitants." 

Hitherto,  the  interposition  of  the  kingdom  of 
Syria,  and  of  the  provinces  of  Cappadocia  and 
Armenia,  had  prevented  actual  contact  between  the 
Romans  and  the  Parthians ;  but  their  mutual  pro- 
gress was  continually  bringing  them  nearer ;  while 
another  great  power,  too,  had  about  the  same  time 
sprung  up  in  the  same  neighborhood,  that  of  Mithra- 
dates  V.,  of  Pontus,  the  son  of  a  former  ally  of 
Rome,  whose  rise  was  perhaps  more  sudden  and  more 
remarkable  than  that  of  any  other  of  the  kings  of 
Western  Asia.  Hostile  as  he  was,  alike  to  Roman 
and  Parthian,  it  was  but  natural  that  a  joint  effort 
should  be  made  by  the  latter  power  and  Rome,  to 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  135 

repress  the  new  and  common  enemy  ;  hence  an  em- 
bassy from  the  Parthian  Mithradates  II.,  to  Sylla, 
shortly  after  the  defeat  of  the  Cappadocians  by  the 
Romans,  an  embassy  perhaps  stimulated  by  the  fact 
that  Tigranes  of  Armenia  had  attached  himself  to 
the  cause  of  the  king  of  Pontus,  and  had  taken  from 
Parthia  the  whole  of  Upper  Mesopotamia.  Sylla, 
however,  did  not  at  once  fall  in  with  this  scheme, 
and  the  Parthian  Mithradates  II.,  soon  after  died, 
after  a  reign  of  more  than  thirty-five  years. 

For  some  years  after  this  event,  it  is  not  clear  who 
was  the  actual  ruler  of  Parthia ;  but  during  this 
period  the  great  war  between  the  Romans  and 
Mithradates  of  Pontus  was  in  progress,  the  obvious 
policy  of  the  Parthians  being  to  keep  aloof,  and  to 
amuse  both  sides  with  fair  words  and  empty  promises ; 
in  the  end,  however,  Phraates  III.,  made  an  alliance 
with  Pompey,  and  marching  into  Armenia  while  the 
Roman  general  was  occupied  with  Mithradates,  was 
completely  successful.  But  Pompey,  perhaps  not 
choosing  at  the  time  to  give  additional  strength  to 
any  Asiatic  prince,  not  only  failed  to  reward  Phra- 
ates for  his  services,  but  drove  the  Parthians  out  of 
Gordyene  (or  Upper  Mesopotamia),  which  had 
always  been  considered  an  integral  part  of  their  em- 
pire, while  he  at  the  same  time  refused  to  the  Par- 
thian monarch  his  now  customary  title  of  "King 
of  kings."  As  each  party,  apparently,  had  a  whole- 
some dread  of  the  other,  war,  though  often  immi- 
nent, did  not  break  out,  and  a  proposal  for  arbitra- 
tion on  the  part  of  Pompey  was  accepted.  Phraates 


136  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

soon  after  this  was  assassinated,  about  B.C.  61,  and 
another  period  of  confusion  in  Parthian  history  arose. 

Orodes,  the  next  monarch  of  note,  ascended  the 
throne  about  B.C.  56,  just  as  Crassus  announced  his 
intention  of  carrying  the  Roman  arms  across  the 
Euphrates.  But  the  Parthian  monarch  was  not  to 
be  caught  sleeping,  and  made  good  use  of  nearly 
two  years  in  completing  his  preparation  against  the 
invader.  Indeed,  Crassus,  even  after  he  had  reached 
Syria,  seemed  in  no  hurry  to  commence  the  attack ; 
hence  the  first  campaign  passed  away  uselessly,  while 
in  the  second  he  would,  perhaps,  have  hardly  taken 
the  initiative,  had  he  not  been  provoked  by  the 
taunts  of  a  Parthian  ambassador  to  march  like  a 
madman  across  Mesopotamia,  through  an  arid,  track- 
less district,  where  he  was  exposed  to  incessant  as- 
saults by  the  innumerable  cavalry  of  his  enemy. 
He  was  also  opposed  by  the  ablest  Parthian  general 
of  the  time,  Surena,*  who,  at  the  age  of  less  than 
thirty  years,  had  been  entrusted  by  the  Parthian 
king  with  his  best  troops. 

The  Parthian,  like  the  Persian  cavalry,  was  of  two 
classes,  one,  a  body  lightly  armed  with  only  a  bow 
*of  great  strength,  and  a  quiver  of  arrows ;  the 
other,  a  body  of  heavy  cavalry,  with  horses,  like 

*  It  was  long  thought  that  Ammianus  was  right  in  supposing 
Surena,  or  Surenas,  a  title  rather  than  a  proper  name,  in  fact,  that 
of  the  personage  next  in  rank  to  the  king  himself  (xxiv.  2),  while 
Appian  supposed  this  title  hereditary  in  the  family  of  the  Surena 
who  conquered  Crassus.  The  Armenian  records  show  that  it  was 
really  the  name  of  one  of  the  leading  families  among  the  Parthians. 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  137 

their  riders,  clad  in  armor,  and  carrying  a  long  and 
heavy  spear,  more  powerful  and  weightier  than  even 
ihe^>i7um  of  the  Romans.  The  armament  of  Surena 
was  almost  wholly  cavalry,  but  probably  of  both 
classes ;  he  had  besides,  an  invaluable  aid  in  a  traitor 
named  Abgarus,  who,  himself  commanding  a  body 
of  light  horse  in  the  service  of  Crassus,  revealed  to 
his  countrymen  the  Roman  plans,  as  fast  as  they 
were  formed.  At  length  the  two  armies  met,  and 
the  Romans  had  their  first  experience  of  the  special 
tactics  of  their  new  enemies,  who,  completely  en- 
veloping them  with  their  cavalry,  plied  them  with  a 
ceaseless  discharge  of  arrows.  In  vain  they  at- 
tempted to  advance :  as  they  rushed  forward,  the 
Parthians  fell  back  just  as  suited  best  their  mode  of 
fighting,  destroying  utterly  by  a  stratagem,  some 
6000  Gaulish  troops  under  the  son  of  Crassus.  On 
the  next  day  but  one,  the  remnant  of  the  Roman 
army  capitulated,  on  the  death  of  their  general, 
Crassus,  in  a  chance  melee,  occasioned  by  an  attempt 
on  the  part  of  the  Parthians,  to  capture  him  during 
a  conference  with  Surena.  "Of  the  entire  army," 
says  Professor  Rawlinson,  "which  had  crossed  the 
Euphrates,  consisting  of  about  40,000  men,  not 
more  than  a  fourth  returned.  One  half  of  the  whole 
number  perished." 

It  is  said,  that  the  news  and  the  bloody  head  of 
Crassus  reached  Orodes,  while  watching,  with  Arta- 
vasdes,  the  acting  of  the  "  Bacchae  "  of  Euripides, 
his  intended  war  with  the  Armenian  chief  having 
been  changed  into  matrimonial  festivities.  Floras 


138  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

and  Dio  add  the  more  questionable  story,  that  the 
Parthians,  believing  the  expedition  of  Crassus  to 
have  sprung  from  mere  lust  of  plunder,  poured 
melted  gold  into  his  mouth.  It  may  be  remarked, 
in  conclusion,  that  the  result  of  this  great  victory 
was  by  no  means  what  might  have  been  anticipated, 
as  Orodes  did  not  follow  it  up,  but  wasted  much 
valuable  time  in  the  siege  of  various  towns  (an  opera- 
tion of  rare  success,  when  performed  by  Asiatic 
troops). 

We  hear  little  more  of  Orodes,  till  when,  a  few 
years  later,  Pompey  was,  on  his  part,  desirous  of  an 
alliance  which  might  strengthen  him  against  his  great 
adversary,  Caesar:  but  the  terms  Orodes  demanded, 
the  absolute  surrender  of  the  whole  province  of  Syria, 
were  obviously  such  as  no  Roman  could  accept ; 
and,  though,  after  Pharsalia,  Caesar  professed  his 
intention  of  carrying  the  war  into  Parthia,  that 
country  was  spared  by  the  daggers  of  the  conspira- 
tors from  open  conflict  with  the  greatest  general  of 
his  age. 

Nor  was  this  all :  the  quarrels  among  the  Triumvirs 
gave  the  Parthians  the  hope  of  securing  some  por- 
tion of  the  Roman  dominions  in  the  East,  especially 
as  Antony,  after  having  alienated  many  of  the 
Eastern  nations  by  his  exactions,  had  retired  to 
Egypt.  They,  too,  had  at  that  time  with  them  a 
Roman  general  of  some  reputation,  the  younger 
Labienus,  who,  like  his  father,  having  supported  the 
cause  of  Pompey,  had  a  reasonable  dread  of  the  pro- 
scriptions of  the  victors.  Hence  a  characteristic 


HISTORY   OF  PERSIA.  139 

outburst,  in  which  their  hosts  of  cavalry  overran  a 
great  portion  of  Syria,  taking  even  such  towns  as 
Apamaea  and  Antioch,  and  a  further  raid  by  the 
Parthian  king  (Pacorus)  himself,  into  Phoenicia  and 
Palestine,  and  by  Labienus  into  Asia  Minor.  In  this 
war  Jerusalem  submitted  to  the  indignity  of  receiving 
as  its  ruler  Antigonus,  the  last  of  the  Asmonsean 
princes,  from  the  hands  of  Pacorus,  who  had  been 
bribed  to  espouse  his  cause  against  John  Hyrcanus 
by  the  gifts  of  1000  talents  and  500  Jewish  women  : 
the  spectacle  was  then  witnessed  of  its  last  priest- 
king,  sitting  on  the  throne  of  David,  from  B.C.  40  to 
B.C.  37,  as  the  satrap  and  dependent  vassal  of  a 
foreign  monarchy. 

But  these  successes  were  of  short  duration.  In 
the  autumn  of  B.C.  39,  the  lieutenant  of  Antony, 
Ventidius,  in  a  campaign  of  remarkable  rapidity  and 
brilliancy,  cleared  Syria  of  the  invaders,  and,  in  the 
following  spring,  completely  routed  the  Parthian 
army  and  slew  Pacorus.  Indeed,  it  is  manifest 
throughout  their  whole  history,  that,  for  long-sus- 
tained efforts  the  Parthians  were  no  match  for  the 
Romans;  their  military  system,  never  varying,  lacked 
elasticity  and  the  power  of  adaptation  to  new  and 
changing  circumstances;  and,  though  admirably 
adapted  for  the  great  plains  of  Asia,  failed  in  more 
contracted  and  difficult  regions.  Hence,  when 
Rome,  to  meet  her  new  enemy,  changed  her  armament 
accordingly,  the  Parthians  gave  up  their  previous 
policy  of  aggression,  preferring  rather  to  stand  at 
bay  than  to  commence  the  attack :  it  was  a  wiser  if 


I4O  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

not  a  nobler  plan,  to  defend  their  territories  from 
invasion,  and  to  this  Parthia  consistently  adhered 
during  the  remaining  two  centuries  and  a  half  of  her 
existence  as  a  separate  monarchy. 

When,  a  little  later,  Orodes,  like  so  many  of  his 
predecessors,  perished  by  assassination,  Antony, 
hearing  that  his  son  and  successor,  Phraates,  with 
his  hands  imbrued  in  the  blood  of  father  and  sub- 
jects, alike,  had  alienated  from  him  many  of  his 
chief  nobles,  thought  the  opportunity  had  come  for 
avenging  the  losses  of  the  Roman  arms  under  Cras- 
sus,  and  of  exalting  his  own  fame  and  renown.  But 
he  was  destined  to  meet  with  a  chastisement,  less 
fatal,  indeed,  than  that  of  Crassus,  yet  scarcely  less 
humiliating.  Advancing  rashly  by  forced  marches 
to  Phraaspa,  and  still  more  rashly  dividing  his  forces 
at  that  place,  he  allowed  the  Parthians  to  close  upon 
his  lieutenant,  Oppius  Stasianus,  to  destroy  his  army 
and  more  than  ten  thousand  Romans,  and  to  cap- 
ture his  baggage  and  munitions  of  war.  Nor  was 
this  all :  Artavasdes,  the  monarch  of  Armenia  who 
had  been  mainly  instrumental  in  inducing  Antony 
to  attempt  this  perilous  march,  with  true  Oriental 
instinct  deserted  his  Roman  friend,  in  the  belief  that 
the  Roman  cause  was  now  desperate. 

The  position  indeed  of  Antony  was  one  of  the 
utmost  danger :  and  he  had  no  alternative  but  to 
fall  back  on  the  Araxes,  harassed,  for  nineteen  con- 
secutive days,  in  every  way  the  Parthians  could 
harass  him,  without  allowing  themselves  to  be  drawn 
into  a  pitched  battle.  At  length,  after  a  march  of 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  14! 

277  English  miles,  the  Romans  crossed  the  "un- 
bridged  "  Araxes,  at  the  ferry  of  Julfa,*  and  found 
themselves  in  the  comparatively  friendly  land  of 
Armenia,  though  with  the  loss  of  not  less  than 
30,000  men.  In  the  following  year,  B.C.  35,  Antony, 
who  had  spent  the  winter  at  Alexandria,  repaid  the 
treachery  of  the  Armenian  Artavasdes  by  over- 
running his  country,  and  capturing  him  with  an  in- 
credible amount  of  booty;  a  natural,  but  unwise, 
act  of  retaliation,  as  it  at  once  drove  the  Armenians 
to  make  common  cause  with  the  Parthians,  and  thus 
united  two  powerful  provinces  which  a  shrewder 
policy  would  have  kept  apart. 

Some  years  later  (B.C.  20)  Augustusf  received  back 
the  standards  taken  from  Crassus,  the  then  Parthian 

*  Virgil's  "  pontem  indignatus  Araxes"  (JEn.  viii.  728),  refers  to 
a  few  years  later,  when  Tiberius,  as  lieutenant  of  Augustus,  cer- 
tainly penetrated  into  the  heart  of  Armenia.  It  may,  however,  be 
doubted  whether,  even  then,  the  Romans  built  a  bridge  over  the 
Araxes,  but  they  were  the  only  engineers  then  who  could  have  done 
so.  Certainly  they  did  not  do  it  under  the  feeble  rule  of  Honorius, 
as  Claudian  would  have  us  believe. 

f  It  was  in  B.C.  22  that  Augustus  first  publicly  announced  his 
expedition  to  the  East,  but  personally  did  no  more  than  encamp 
his  army  along  the  Euphrates.  Tiberius  had,  however,  by  this 
time  marched  into  Armenia,  for  Horace  speaks  of  the  submission 
of  the  "  Cold  Niphates  "  (doubtless  Nebad,  or  Ararat)  and  of  the 
"  river  of  the  Medes  "  (Od.  i.  2) — and  it  may  be,  that  a  successful 
battle  near  Ararat,  in  the  heart  of  Armenia,  hastened  the  return 
of  the  captured  standards.  Horace  probably  uses  a  poet's  license 
when  he  makes  Phraates  on  his  knees  re-accept  his  kingdom  from 
Augustus  (Epist.  i.  12) ;  but  it  is  nevertheless  certain  that  Augus- 
tus carried  the  four  sons  of  Phraates  to  Rome,  leaving  a  fifth,  and 
illegitimate  one,  to  poison  the  Parthian  king. 


142  HISTORY  OF    PERSIA. 

king,  Phraates,  being  well  aware  that  he  could  not 
resist  such  a  force  as  the  Roman  Emperor  could 
have  brought  against  him.  Many  years  of  compara- 
tive peace  then  ensued,  as  the  immediate  successors 
of  Augustus  adhered  faithfully  to  his  judgment,  that 
the  Roman  empire  had  reached  its  limits :  nor,  in- 
deed, was  it  till  Trajan  again  awakened  the  dream 
of  universal  empire,  that  any  serious  struggle  took 
place  between  Rome  and  Parthia.  It  is  not  neces- 
sary to  notice  here  several  petty  wars  about  this 
period,  most  of  which  may  be  traced  to  the  weak- 
ness and  vacillation  of  the  Armenian  princes  or  of 
their  subjects.  I  ought,  however,  to  mention  that, 
during  this  interval,  a  new  race  had  become  involved 
in  the  various  conflicts  of  the  times,  with  a  capacity 
as  soldiers  the  Romans  were  long  unwilling  to  admit. 
Vast  numbers  of  Jews  were  now  spread  over  Western 
Asia.  Some,  probably  the  descendants  of  the  colo- 
nies planted  by  the  kings  of  Assyria  and  Babylon, 
others  dwellers  from  choice  in  the  countries  adjacent 
to  Palestine,  as  the  Parthians,  were  generally  tole- 
rant, especially  when  toleration  promoted  their  com- 
mercial interests.  "They  formed,"  says  Professor 
Rawlinson,  "a  recognized  community,  had  some 
cities  which  were  entirely  their  own,  possessed  a 
common  treasury,  and,  from  time  to  time,  sent  up 
to  Jerusalem  the  offerings  of  the  people  under  the 
protection  of  a  convoy  of  30,000  or  40,000  men." 
In  fact  the  Parthians  must  have  felt  that  this  Jewish 
population  was,  in  some  degree,  a  counterpoise  to  the 
disaffected  Greeks,  Armenians,  and  Syrians. 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  143 

The  only  other  event  of  importance  at  this  period 
was  the  quarrel  between  Vologases  and  the  Romans 
which  led  to  several  attacks  by  the  Parthians  on  Ar- 
menia, but  is  chiefly  remarkable  for  the  visit  of  his 
son  Tiridates  to  Rome,  an  event  as  curious  as  it  is 
strange.  It  appears  that  after  the  recovery  of  Ar- 
menia by  the  Romans,  Corbulo,  the  Roman  general, 
insisted  that  Tiridates  should  proceed  to  Rome  and 
receive  his  crown  direct  from  the  hands  of  Nero, 
while  he  detained  one  of  his  sisters  as  a  hostage  that 
this  act  should  be  fully  carried  into  execution.  We 
learn  that  after  a  while  Tiridates  set  out,  accompanied 
by  his  wife  and  an  escort  of  3000  Parthian  cavalry, 
that  passing  through  two-thirds  of  the  empire  they 
were  everywhere  received  as  though  in  a  triumphal 
procession,  and  that  great  cities  turned  out  to  wel- 
come them  and  hung  their  streets  with  festive  gar- 
lands. After  riding  on  horseback  the  whole  way, 
through  Thrace  and  Illyricum,  on  their  reaching 
Rome,  the  whole  city  was  illuminated  on  the  night 
before  the  investiture,  and,  on  the  following  day,  the 
Armenian  prince  ascended  the  rostra,  and  seated 
himself  at  the  feet  of  the  emperor.  As  Professor 
Rawlinson  has  well  put  it,  "The  circumstance  of  his 
journey  and  reception  involved  a  concession  to 
Rome  of  all  that  could  be  desired  in  the  way  of 
formal  or  verbal  acknowledgment.  The  substantial 
advantage,  however,  remained  with  the  Parthians. 
The  Romans,  both  in  the  East  and  at  the  capital, 
were  flattered  by  a  show  of  submission ;  but  the 
Orientals  must  have  concluded  that  the  long  struggle 


144  HISTORY  OF    PERSIA. 

had  terminated  in  an  acknowledgment  by  Rome  of 
Parthia  as  the  stronger  power."  The  establishment 
of  the  Parthian  Tiridates  as  king  of  Armenia,  secured 
a  considerable  period  of  peace  between  Rome  and 
Armenia;  hence  there  is  little  to  record  here,  except 
another  irruption  from  the  north  by  a  Scythian 
named  Alaric  in  A.D.  78,  which  gave  the  oppor- 
tunity of  revolt  to  the  Hyrcanians  and  was  thus  the 
first  step  towards  the  disruption  of  the  long  sway  of 
the  Arsacidse. 

For  the  first  years  of  his  reign  Trajan  was  suf- 
ficiently occupied  by  the  nations  of  the  West ;  but, 
in  A.D.  114,  having  conquered  Dacia,  he  resolved  to 
reassert  the  dominion  of  Rome  in  Asia,  much  weak- 
ened as  this  had  been  during  the  reigns  of  his  un- 
warlike  predecessors.  The  times  too  had  greatly 
changed  since  the  conquests  of  Lucullus  and  An- 
tony, and  new  elements  of  confusion  had  arisen, 
tending  to  disintegrate  still  further  the  already  par- 
tially collapsing  rule  of  the  Parthians.  Christianity 
was  already  acting  "as  a  dissolvent  on  the  previ- 
ously existing  forms  of  society,"  and  Judaism, 
"  embittered  by  persecution,  had  from  a  nationality 
become  a  conspiracy." 

To  avert  the  meditated  attack  of  Trajan,  the  am- 
bassador of  the  ruler  of  Armenia,  Chosroes,  met 
him  at  Athens,  and  tried  by  rich  gifts  to  come  to 
any  arrangement  short  of  invasion  ;  but  Trajan  had 
resolved  on  a  campaign,  in  which  he  hoped  to  emu- 
late, if  not  surpass,  the  deeds  of  Alexander.  His 
chance,  however,  of  any  such  distinction  was  small, 


HISTORY  OF    PERSIA.  145 

as  the  forces  of  the  Eastern  princes  were  no  longer 
what  they  had  been,  when  they  crushed  Crassus  and 
humbled  Antony.  No  Orodes  or  Phraates  III.  held 
the  sceptre  of  the  East ;  hence,  when  Trajan  had 
passed  Samosata,  he  was  not  stayed  on  his  onward 
course,  though  Parthamasiris,  the  Parthian  ruler,  in 
the  most  abject  manner,  divesting  his  brow  of  his 
diadem,  laid  it  at  the  feet  of  the  emperor.  It  was 
evidently  the  opinion  of  Trajan  that  such  submission 
was  simply  a  matter  of  course,  deserving  little  praise 
or  thanks,  still  less  reward ;  the  Parthian  was  simply 
to  do  the  bidding  of  Rome.  Nor,  indeed,  had  this 
been  all,  would  there  have  been  much  to  remark 
about  it ;  it  would  have  been  but  another  instance 
of  the  weaker  going  to  the  wall.  But,  as  all  will 
regret,  Trajan  was  not  content  with  the  submission 
of  the  young  prince,  but  shortly  afterwards  put  him 
to  death.  As  the  whole  character  of  Trajan  is  averse 
to  petty  assassinations,  it  is  but  fair  to  suppose  that, 
in  this  instance,  he  was  misled  by  false  or  doubtful 
rumors,  the  more  so  as  he  had  the  courage  to  avow 
that  this  deed  was  wholly  his  own,  and  therefore 
probably  believed  it  a  necessary  act  of  justice. 

The  general  result  of  the  first  campaign  was,  that 
Greater  and  Lesser  Armenia  were  formed  into  one 
province,  and  the  nations  taught  that  Rome  was  the 
power  they  had  most  to  dread.  In  the  same  year 
Mesopotamia  was  in  like  manner  reduced,  while  in 
that  following  (A.D.  116)  the  provincial  towns  of 
Nineveh,*  Gaugamela,  and  Arbela,  fell  into  the 

*  It  is  supposed  that  the  Roman  colony  of  Nineveh  was  founded 
K 


146  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

hands  of  the  Romans,  the  whole  tract  between  the 
Zagros  and  the  Tigris  having  been  over-run  :  other 
places,  too,  of  great  importance,  as  Hatra  and  Cte- 
siphon,  submitted,  and  there  seemed  no  limit  to 
Roman  conquest. 

But  the  Parthian  well  knew  his  advantages ;  if  he 
could  not  fight  in  the  open  field,  he  could  fall  back 
as  the  Roman  advanced,  and  leave  a  desert  behind 
him,  impracticable  for  even  Roman  military  genius. 
Above  all,  while  Trajan,  the  first  and  the  last  em- 
peror to  do  so,  was  lamenting,  on  the  waters  of  the 
Indian  Ocean,  that  his  advanced  age  alone  prevented 
his  adding  India  to  his  conquests,  the  Parthian  could 
foment  disaffection  in  his  rear,  and  thus  compel  the 
vain-glorious  conqueror  to  retrace  his  steps  through 
the  half-subdued  regions  behind  him.  Hence,  too, 
willing  instruments  of  the  Parthian  policy,  the  po- 
pulace of  Seleucia,  Hatra,  -and  Nisibis,  rose  in  arms 
behind  him,  and  it  is  likely  that  his  retreat  would 
have  been  cut  off  had  his  lieutenants  been  less  equal 
to  their  duties,  or  unable  to  crush  at  its  commence- 
ment the  spreading  rebellion.  In  spite  of  this,  how- 
ever, Trajan  was  compelled  to  beat  a  hasty  retreat 
and  to  acknowledge  that  his  power  over  these  East- 
ern provinces  was  little  better  than  a  rope  of  sand  : 
nay,  what  must  have  grieved  him  more  than  any- 
thing else,  he  had  to  submit  to  a  humiliating  repulse 

by  Claudius.  Coins  of  this  place  exist  with  the  name  of  Niniva 
Claudiopolis,  under  the  emperors  Trajan,  Maximinus,  Severus, 
Alexander,  Mamaea,  and  Gordianus  Pius  (Num.  i  Chron.  xix..i). 
Tacitus  and  Ammianus  also  notice  it 


HISTORY  OF   PERSIA.  147 

by  the  rude  Arabs  of  Hatra,  his  troops  being  unable 
or  unwilling  to  force  their  way,  though  their  engines 
had  breached  its  walls.  In  the  next  year,  A.D.  117, 
Trajan  died,  and  his  successor,  Hadrian,  deeming 
his  conquests  impolitic,  at  once  forbore  extending 
the  Eastern  frontiers  of  the  empire.  Hadrian,  in 
fact,  .voluntarily  relinquished  the  three  provinces 
Trajan's  Parthian  war  had  added  to  the  empire. 
"Rome,  therefore,"  as  Professor  Rawlinson  re- 
marks, "gained  nothing  by  the  great  exertions  she 
had  made,  unless  it  were  a  partial  recovery  of  her 
lost  influence  in  Armenia." 

The  next  direct  conflict  between  the  Romans  and 
the  Parthians  in  the  reign  of  Vologases  III.,  is  so 
far  worthy  of  record  that  it  is  the  first  occasion  in 
which  a  Roman  army  had  been  completely  success- 
ful in  its  invasion  :  it  is  also  noteworthy  that  the 
general  who  accomplished  this  feat  seems  to  have 
acted  on  his  own  authority,  and  without  any  direct 
orders  from  Rome.  The  circumstances  were  these  : 
a  petty  war  had  arisen,  owing  to  the  raid  of  the 
Alani  into  the  province  of  Cappadocia,  which  had 
been,  however,  crushed  for  the  time  by  the  historian, 
Arrian,  then  its  Prefect.  But  a  little  later,  about 
the  year  A.D.  161,  the  war  became  more  general, 
Parthian  troops  having  crossed  the  Euphrates,  and 
pushed  on  through  Syria,  into  Palestine.  To  meet 
these  invaders,  the  young,  pleasure-loving  and  in- 
competent Verus  was  sent  from  Rome  to  take  the 
chief  command,  but  associated  with  him  were  able 
officers,  the  ablest  being  Avidius  Cassius.  This 


148  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

officer  had  at  first  a  difficult  task  before  him,  but,  at 
length,  in  A.D.  163,  he  routed  the  Parthian  king  in 
a  great  battle  at  Europus,  and  drove  him  across  the 
Euphrates.  Nor  was  he  slow  to  follow  up  his  first 
success.  Having  won  another  considerable  battle 
near  Susa,  he  besieged,  took,  and  burnt  Seleucia  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Tigris,  and  occupied  Ctesi- 
phon  on  the  left.  Thence,  still  advancing,  he 
crossed  the  Zagros,  and,  seizing  part  of  Media,  ena- 
bled his  imperial  masters  to  add  to  their  already  as- 
sumed titles  of  "Armeniacus"  and  "Parthicus," 
the  new  one  of  "Medicus." 

Parthia  was  thus  for  the  time  completely  humbled ; 
yet  had  cause  for  abundant  rejoicing  in  the  fate  that 
ultimately  befell  her  invaders.  In  Babylonia  a  dis- 
ease, alike  unwonted  and  wasting,  was  contracted 
by  the  soldiers ;  a  scourge,  indeed,  so  terrible  that 
their  deaths  were  numbered  by  thousands;  and, 
what  was  worse,  the  survivors,  on  their  homeward 
march,  carried  the  infection  with  them,  till  the 
pestilence  had  swept  over  Italy  and  reached  even  the 
shores  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  If  Eutropius  can  be 
believed,  nearly  one-half  of  the  whole  population 
and  almost  all  the  Roman  army  were  carried  off  by 
it.  Yet  by  this  war,  fatal  as  it  had  been  to  the  con- 
querors, a  province  of  Parthia,  that  between  the 
Euphrates  and  the  Khabur,  became  Roman,  and  was 
long  held  by  the  emperors  as  part  of  the  Roman 
territory.  The  struggle  ended  in  A.D.  165,  and, 
though  Vologases  survived  another  twenty-five  years, 
he  did  not  make  any  effective  effort  to  recover  the 


HISTORY  OF   PERSIA.  149 

ground  he  had  lost.  Indeed,  the  Parthian  system 
was  now  on  its  decline,  and  the  time  was  fast  matur- 
ing for  the  substitution  in  its  place  of  a  revived  re- 
ligion. The  next  time  we  find  the  Parthians  at  war 
with  Rome  was,  when,  on  the  death  of  Commodus, 
the  empire  was  claimed  by  Pescennius  Niger,  Clo- 
dius  Albinus,  and  Severus,  respectively.  During 
these  disturbances,  the  Parthians  naturally  gave  their 
aid  where  it  was  likely  to  be  most  damaging  to  the 
Roman  empire ;  probably  caring  little  enough  which 
individual  became  emperor,  so  only  he  entered  on 
his  government  with  diminished  forces  and  strength. 
In  the  progress  of  these  commotions,  Sept.  Severus 
marched  twice  across  Mesopotamia ;  in  his  second 
expedition,  perhaps  hoping  to  surpass  Trajan,  he 
built  a  fleet  in  the  upper  country,  and  captured  the 
great  cities  of  Babylon,  Seleucia,  and  Ctesiphon. 
But  here  his  successes  ended.  In  spite  of  his  usual 
care,  supplies  began  to  be  scarce,  and  Severus  felt 
the  necessity  of  falling  back  ere  a  greater  calamity 
should  befall  him.  As  the  country  along  the  Eu- 
phrates had  been  entirely  exhausted,  Severus  retired 
along  the  banks  of  the  Tigris ;  on  his  way,  however, 
meeting  with  a  repulse  at  Hatra,  not  unlike  that 
which  had  befallen  Trajan,  and  which  completely 
tarnished  all  his  previous  victories.  Hatra  was,  at 
that  time,  reputed  to  be  full  of  treasure,  so  the 
covetous  emperor  resolved  to  plunder  it,  in  return, 
as  he  pretended,  for  the  aid  the  people  had  given  to 
his  rival  Niger.  The  place,  though  small,  was  sur- 
rounded by  a  solid  wall,  on  which  the  Roman  en- 


I  $0  HISTORY  OF   PERSIA. 

gines  made  little  impression  ;  the  people  were  brave 
and  skilful  archers ;  moreover  had  a  body  of  cavalry 
who  cut  to  pieces  the  Roman  foraging  parties.  The 
result  was  that  they  withstood  two  sieges,  the  last  of 
twenty  days ;  till,  at  length,  Severus  was  compelled 
to  retire,  with  his  army  demoralized  and  suffering 
from  diseases,  the  natural  effect  of  a  march  during 
the  hottest  season  of  the  year,  with  an  inadequate 
supply  of  wholesome  food.  His  troops,  indeed,  we 
are  told,  openly  refused  to  obey  his  orders,  and 
shrunk  from  the  actual  assault,  though  the  breach 
was  deemed  practicable. 

But,  though  Severus  failed  to  reduce  Hatra,  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that,  on  the  whole,  his  expedition 
was  glorious  for  Rome,  as  by  it  another  province 
was  taken  from  the  Parthians ;  in  fact  he  not  only 
recovered  Rome's  former  position  in  Mesopotamia, 
but,  by  crossing  the  Tigris,  secured  also  the  fertile 
tract  of  Adiabene  between  the  northern  Zab  and 
the  Adhem.  By  this  advance  he  established  the 
Roman  power  within  less  than  seventy  miles  of  the 
Parthian  capital,  and  provided  means  for  an  easy 
descent,  when  necessary,  upon  the  still  greater  cities 
of  Babylon  and  Seleucia.  During  the  whole  of  this 
prolonged  conflict  in  Mesopotamia  we  do  not  hear 
of  any  Parthian  resistance,  and  must  therefore  sup- 
pose either  that  Vologases  IV.,  had  not  the  power  to 
interfere,  or  that  his  people  no  longer  possessed  the 
enthusiastic  bravery  of  their  more  youthful  empire. 

On  his  death,  about  A.D.  209,  and  for  the  next 
seventeen  or  eighteen  years  preceding  the  revolt  of 


HISTORY  OF    PERSIA.  IJI 

the  Persians,  it  is  clear  from  the  coins  that  his  two 
sons,  Artabanus  and  Vologases  were  reigning,  though 
it  is  impossible  to  say  with  certainty  over  what  parts 
of  the  country.  As  the  Roman  writers,  after  the 
year  A.D.  215,  speak  of  Artabanus  only,  and  give  this 
name  to  the  last  Parthian  king,  it  may  be  presumed 
that  in  him  was  vested  the  chief  power,  and  that  he, 
at  all  events,  was  the  personage  whom  the  Western 
nations  recognized  as  the  chief  ruler.  There  is  little 
of  interest  to  notice  in  these  years,  except  a  strange 
and  almost  ludicrous  proposal  on  the  part  of  Cara- 
calla,  to  wed  a  Parthian  princess,  with  the  view  of 
dividing  the  conquest  of  the  whole  world  between 
Rome  and  Parthia.  "The  Roman  infantry,"  said 
he,  "  is  the  best  in  the  world,  and,  in  steady,  hand- 
to-hand  fighting,  must  be  allowed  to  be  unrivalled. 
The  Parthians  surpass  all  nations  in  the  number  of 
their  cavalry  and  in  the  excellence  of  their  archers." 
There  seems  some  doubt  as  to  the  reply  Artabanus 
made,  and  Dio  and  Herodian  differ  on  this  point. 
It  is,  however,  certain  that  Caracalla  went  as  a  friend 
with  his  army  to  Ctesiphon,  and  then,  with  charac- 
teristic treachery,  fell  on  the  unsuspecting  Parthians, 
plundered  and  ravaged  their  territory,  and  returned 
to  Mesopotamia  laden  with  his  ill-gotten  spoil.  The 
"common  enemy  of  mankind,"  as  Gibbon  justly 
calls  him,  then  disgraced  the  Roman  name  still  fur- 
ther, by  a  wanton  act  of  barbarity  and  insult,  the 
destruction  of  the  graves  of  the  Parthian  royal 
family,  for  ages  preserved  at  Arbela.  Not  long 
after  Caracalla  was  murdered,  and  his  successor, 


I$2  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

Macrinus,  found  himself  at  once  opposed  to  a  vast 
host,  collected  by  Artabanus  to  avenge  the  insults 
his  country  had  received  from  Caracalla.  A  pro- 
longed battle  of  three  days  ensued  near  Nisibis,  in 
which,  having  been  completely  worsted,  Macrinus 
was  compelled  to  restore  the  captives  and  booty  car- 
ried off  by  Caracalla,  and  to  purchase  for  something 
like  a  million  and  a  half  of  our  money,  an  igno- 
minious peace  with  his  great  Asiatic  rival.  Thus 
ended  the  last  conflict  between  Rome  and  Parthia ; 
and,  within  a  brief  period,  ended  also  the  illustrious 
dynasty  of  the  Arsacidse  by  the  death  of  Artabanus, 
A.D.  226,  on  the  revolt  of  the  Persians  under  Artax- 
erxes  or  Ardashir,  of  the  house  of  Sassan,  whence 
they  derived  their  historical  title  of  Sassanidae.  Pro- 
fessor Rawlinson  well  remarks  of  the  Arsacidae, 
"The  race  itself  does  not  seem  to  have  become  ex- 
hausted. Its  chiefs,  the  successive  occupants  of  the 
throne,  never  sank  into  mere  weaklings  or  faineants ; 
never  shut  themselves  up  in  their  seraglios  or  ceased 
to  take  a  leading  part  alike  in  civil  broils  and  in 
struggles  with  foreign  rivals."  It  is,  however,  pro- 
bable that  their  troops  had  ceased  to  be  what  they 
hacl  been  under  the  great  early  monarchs  of  the 
house,  while  there  can  be  no  question  that  their 
original  empire,  as  created  by  Mithradates  and 
others,  had  been  much  reduced. 

Hyrcania,  as  we  have  seen,  had  revolted  so  early 
as  A.D.  78,  and,  as  far  as  we  know,  had  maintained 
its  own  from  that  time,  while  the  Romans  had  secured 
two  at  least  of  the  most  valuable  of  the  western  pro- 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  153 

vinces  of  Parthia.  Nor,  indeed,  did  Rome  altogether 
lose  her  prestige  by  the  loss  of  the  great  battle  of 
Nisibis,  for,  immediately  after  this  action,  Artabanus, 
in  his  treaty  with  Macrinus,  surrendered  the  old  Par- 
thian province  of  Mesopotamia. 


CHAPTER   VI. 

Sassanidae  —  Ardashir  I.  —  Shahpur  I. — Valerian — Odaenathus — 
Varahranll. — Tiridates  of  Armenia — Galerius  — Narses — Shah- 
pur  II. — Julian  III. — Firuz  I. — Nushirwan — Mauritius — Khosru 
II. —  Heraclius — Muhammed — Yezdigird  III. — Muhammedan 
Conquest  —  Sassanian  Monuments  at  Nakhsh-i-Rustam  — 
Nakhsh-i-Regib — Shahpur — Takht-i-Bostan — Mr.  Thomas's  in- 
terpretation of  the  inscriptions  at  Hajiabad. 

IT  is  not  easy  to  determine  from  such  documents 
as  have  come  down  to  us,  all  the  motives  that  led  to 
the  Sassanian  revolt,  but  the  attentive  student  will 
observe  abundant  inducements  for  any  man  of  real 
ability  to  take  up  arms  against  the  then  existing  au- 
thorities and  system.  Indeed,  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  there  had  long  rankled  in  the  hearts  of 
the  Persian  people  a  hatred  of  their  Arsacidan  go- 
vernors, though  there  was  nothing  especially  oppres- 
sive in  their  rule,  while  they  were,  perhaps  from  in- 
difference, generally  tolerant  in  religious  matters : 
moreover,  in  the  earlier  times,  perhaps  always,  they 
had  permitted  the  existence  of  native  rulers  over  the 
province  of  Persis,  which  implies  the  recognition  to 
some  extent  of  the  native  manners  and  customs. 

Yet  at  all  periods  the  Persians  must  have  resented 

their  exclusion  from  the  higher  offices  of  the  state, 

which  the  Arsacidae  jealously  maintained  for  their 

own  families  and  immediate  followers ;  while  they 

154 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  1 55 

may  also  have  felt  that  a  nation,  who  had  given  to 
the  world  a  Cyrus  and  a  Darius,  deserved  some  spe- 
cial pre-eminence.  The  Parthians  could  have  had 
no  inherent  claim  to  the  exclusive  rule  of  Western 
Asia,  and  must,  therefore,  always  have  maintained 
their  position  by  the  mere  force  of  arms :  on  the 
other  hand,  the  Magi,  as  representing  the  faith  of 
Zoroaster,  would  have  had  but  little  influence  in 
Parthia,  even  if  they  had  not  been  repressed  by  the 
strong  arm  of  the  civil  power. 

Again,  the  effect  of  the  battle  of  Nisibis,  though 
one  of  victory  to  the  Arsacidae,  must  really  have  been 
a  source  of  weakness  to  them,  or  Artabanus  would 
have  at  once  followed  it  up  by  the  destruction  of 
Macrinus'  army  rather  than  by  the  cession  of  Meso- 
potamia to  the  Romans.  It  is  further  note-worthy 
that  Moses  of  Chorene  remarks  that,  at  the  same 
time,  two  princes  of  the  house  of  Arsaces,  who  dwelt 
in  Bactria,  were  at  feud  with  the  reigning  monarch. 

It  has  been  supposed  by  some  that  the  Ardashir 
who  raised  the  standard  of  revolt  was  himself  a 
Magus,  and  therefore  directly  bound  to  exert  himself 
to  the  utmost  in  the  defence  of  his  own  faith.  On 
the  other  hand,  Herodian  asserts  that  he  was  at  the 
time  the  tributary  ruler  of  Persis.  The  early  writers 
as  Gibbon,  and  Malcolm,  have  taken  the  former 
view,  Professor  Rawlinson  the  latter.  Perhaps  all 
that  is  really  certain  on  this  subject  is,  that  he  was 
the  son  of  a  certain  Sassan,  and  that  his  revolt 
against  the  Arsacidae  in  Persis  dates  from  about 
A.D.  220. 


1 56  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

Before,  however,  I  proceed  to  give  some  account 
of  the  principal  Sassanian  rulers,  it  is  necessary  to 
make  a  few  remarks  on  their  connection  and  deal- 
ings with  the  different  populations  with  whom,  during 
the  400  years  of  their  dominion,  they  came  in  con- 
tact :  bearing  always  in  mind  the  fact,  that  the  Per- 
sians claimed  to  be  pure  Iranians  of  the  great  Indo- 
European  stock,  though,  doubtless,  a  good  deal 
mixed  with  the  non- Aryans  (or  Turanians),  who 
dwelt  around  them.  Unluckily,  we  have  but  few 
materials  for  the  early  part  of  their  history.  Native 
or  contemporary  chronicles  there  are  none ;  and  the 
later  writers  of  Armenia  or  Constantinople  are  the 
records  of  enemies;  the  Armenians  in  those  days 
always  so,  the  Greeks  generally.  Yet  to  the  latter  we 
must  trust  entirely  for  the  first  hundred  years  and 
more,  though,  with  this  advantage,  that  some  of 
them,  like  Ammianus  and  Procopius,  took  part  in 
the  scenes  they  describe ;  moreover,  both  of  these, 
as  well  as  Theophylact  Simocatta,  are  on  the  whole, 
trustworthy. 

On  the  other  hand,  though  Armenian  literature  in 
any  form  did  not  commence  till  the  fourth  century 
A.D.,  as  the  old  Armenians  (the-  present  people  are 
Iranians  who  have  forgotten  their  parentage)  lived, 
from  Achsemenian  times,  nearer  to  Persia  than  any 
other  nation,  it  is  reasonable  to  expect  that  from 
even  their  comparatively  late  writings,  some  names 
hitherto  misconceived  may  be  explained.  Thus,  I 
have  already  pointed  out  how  the  Greek  writers 
generally  assume  that  Surena  or  Surenas,  was  the 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  1 57 

title  of  the  chief  general  under  the  monarch  himself, 
if  not  his  own  second  title;  while  the  Armenian 
writers  declare  it  was  really  the  name  of  one  of  the 
great  Arsacidan  families  who  preserved  their  tradi- 
tional lineage  long  after  the  empire  had  passed  from 
their  house.  We  meet  with  other  and  similar  great 
families,  as  the  Aspahapats  (the  Ispehebids  of  the 
seventh  and  eighth  centuries),  and  the  Mihrans. 

Other  points  worthy  of  notice,  as  explanatory  of 
many  confused  passages  in  the  history  of  the  wars 
between  the  Greeks  and  the  Persians,  are  the  certain, 
clear,  and  definite  objects  every  Sassanian  ruler  kept 
constantly  before  his  eyes.  These  were,  speaking 
generally,  to  extend  the  boundaries  of  the  Persian 
empire  to  the  west  of  the  Euphrates;  to  weaken, 
whenever  opportunity  occurred,  Armenia,  as  the 
northern  frontier  and  the  key  of  Persia,  held  as  this 
state  was  at  that  period,  by  a  population  at  variance 
from  the  Persians  in  creed  and  race;  to  prevent  the 
progress  of  Christianity,  not  alone  in  their  own  do- 
minions, but  in  the  provinces  adjacent  to  them ;  and 
to  spread,  by  all  possible  means,  the  pure  faith  of 
Zoroaster,  as  distinguished  from  nature  worship  on 
one  side  and  Christianity  on  the  other.  These  prin- 
ciples borne  in  mind  explain  much  of  the  subsequent 
history  of  this  people.  Thus,  when  Armenia  was  in 
league  with  the  Byzantine  Court,  the  Persians  gene- 
rally turned  their  arms  against  her,  and  less  rarely 
into  the  provinces  of  the  west  and  south :  on  the 
other  hand,  when  Armenia  and  Persia  were  allied 
and  friendly,  or  the  former  subject  to  the  latter,  the 


158  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

war  was  centralized  in  Mesopotamia  or  extended  into 
Asia  Minor,  the  northern  frontiers  of  Persia  being 
then  secure.  In  every  instance  we  find  the  Persians 
endeavoring  to  make  sure  of  Armenia,  and  unwilling 
to  join  in  wars  distant  from  their  own  centre  till  they 
had  complete  control  over  the  frontier  mountains. 

Again  in  their  dealings  with  Christianity  the  Per- 
sian rulers  were  characteristically  perfidious ;  and  if 
fair  and  open  enmity  did  not  succeed,  rarely  scru- 
pled to  adopt  any  other  means  to  sap  its  foundations. 
As  is  well  known,  the  Greek  Church  from  the  fourth 
to  the  end  of  the  sixth  century,  was  rent  by  every 
form  of  controversy  and  religious  fanaticism,  fol- 
lowed as  these  are  invariably  by  the  bitter  religious 
animosities;  the  emperors  themselves  had  their 
share,  too,  in  many  of  these  quarrels,  while  oecume- 
nical councils  failed  to  reduce  the  factions  to  unity, 
often,  perhaps,  because  the  distances  were  so  great 
and  intercommunication  so  difficult.  All  these  were 
sources  of  division  among  the  Christians,  and  sources, 
too,  of  weakness;  and  the  Persian  rulers  fostered 
both  and  profited  by  both;  their  object  being  to 
give  their  utmost  support  to  any  sect  in  arms  against 
the  orthodoxy  of  Constantinople.  Thus,  when  the 
Nestorians  were  ejected  from  the  schools  of  Edessa, 
they  found  a  hearty  welcome  among  the  Sassanians 
of  Persia;  Firuz,  the  then  monarch,  seizing,  in  their 
behalf,  the  episcopal  chair  of  Ctesiphon,  the  seat  of 
the  Patriarch  of  Assyria  and  Persia;  while  many 
other  bishoprics  shortly  after  fell  into  his  hands,  till 
nearly  all  Persia  was  Nestorianized. 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  159 

In  fact,  the  ordinary  system  of  Persia  gave  full 
toleration  to  any  creeds  at  variance  with  that  of 
Constantinople,  and,  perhaps,  in  this  aspect  only, 
had  any  bond  of  union  with  the  Armenians.  Yet 
it  must  be  admitted  that  Persian  notions  of  tolera- 
tion were  meagre  in  kind  and  seldom  long  enduring. 
It  was  rare  for  even  Nestorian  Christianity  to  escape 
without  persecution,  except  for  some  temporary  poli- 
tical reason.  Even  the  king  of  Persia,  Kobad,  lost 
his  throne  for  embracing  the  views  of  Mazdak,  and 
Mani  (the  author  of  Manicheism)  was  executed  in 
Persia  for  inventing  a  mixed  system  of  Zoroastrian- 
ism  and  Christianity.  Again,  in  the  same  spirit, 
in  which  they  used  their  utmost  power  to  prevent 
the  increase  of  converts  to  true  and  orthodox  Chris- 
tianity, the  early  Persian  monarchs  labored  hard  to 
collect  together  the  scattered  fragments  of  the  Zend- 
avesta  and  of  other  works  believed  to  embody  Zoro- 
astrian  doctrines,  and  to  set  up  on  high  abundant 
fire  altars,  the  living  memorials  of  their  ancient 
faith.  To  the  same  end,  they  re-introduced  Pehlevi 
as  the  Court  language,  re-constituted  the  body-guards 
called  the  "immortals,"  and,  having  somewhere 
found  the  old  Darafsh-i-kawani,  again  set  it  up  as 
the  banner  of  their  renewed  empire.  Even  the 
royal  names  of  many  of  their  most  distinguished 
monarchs  were  taken  directly  from  heroes  recorded 
in  the  Zend-avesta,  such  as  Ardashir,  Khosur,  Ko- 
bad, Varahran,  and  Ormazd. 

We  have  stated  that  Ardashir  probably  took  up 
arms  about  A.D.  220,  and  naturally,  his  first  effort 


l6o  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

was  to  establish  his  authority  in  Persis,*  and  thence 
to  conquer  the  adjacent  and  thinly-peopled  district 
of  Caramania  or  Kirman,  and  ultimately  Media. 
This  last  onslaught  was  perhaps  induced  by  the  be- 
lief that  the  Medians  and  Bactrians  had  given  shelter 
to  the  two  princes  of  the  house  of  Arsaces  to  whom 
we  have  already  alluded. 

It  would  seem  that,  for  some  time,  Artabanus 
made  no  attempt  to  put  down  the  rebels ;  he  now, 
however,  marched  an  army  into  Persis,  but  was  de- 
feated in  three  great  battles,  and  in  the  last,  accord- 
ing to  Malcolm,  fought  in  the  plain  of  Hormuz, 
between  Bekahan  and  Shuster,  he  lost  his  life  and 
crown,  A.D.  226.  By  degrees  all  the  provinces  of 
the  old  Parthian  empire  fell  into  the  hands  of  Arda- 
shir,  who,  to  give  the  color  of  legitimacy  to  his  new 
empire,  is  said  to  have  married  an  Arsacide  princess,f 

*  I  have  noticed  before,  that  owing  to  the  position  of  Mesene 
(for  many  years  under  its  own  kings),  the  Parthians  were  never 
able  for  long  to  keep  a  navy  afloat  on  the  waters  of  the  Persian 
Gulf.  Owing  to  this  circumstance  a  considerable  commerce  had 
sprung  up  with  India  on  the  one  side  and  Petra  on  the  other, 
during  the  first  two  centuries  of  our  era.  To  secure,  therefore 
this  province  was  a  necessity  for  Ardashir  I.,  and  one  of  his  first 
operations  was  to  build  in  Mesene,  according  to  Hamzah  of  Is- 
pahan (who  wrote  in  the  tenth  century),  a  number  of  towns  for 
commercial  or  naval  purposes.  One  of  these  (rather  rebuilt  than 
built)  was  Forath-Maisan,  a  name,  probably,  recalling  that  of  the 
old  province,  Mesene.  It  was  the  obvious  policy  of  the  petty 
kings  of  Mesene  to  be  as  neutral  as  possible  in  the  wars  between 
Rome  and  Parthia,  seeing  that  they  had  in  their  hands  so  large  a 
portion  of  the  commerce  of  the  Persian  Gulf. 

f  It  is  right  to  add  that  coins  exist  of  a  certain  Artavasdes,  bear- 
ing the  date  of  A.D.  227,  but  we  have  no  clear  evidence  where  he 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  l6l 

The  reign  of  Ardashir  (sometimes  called  Babekan) 
was  brilliant  and  successful.  He  was  able  to  unite 
and  to  consolidate  the  various  fragments  of  his  em- 
pire ;  to  contend  with  varying  success  against  the 
Romans  under  Severus  Alexander  and  to  establish  in 
its  purity  Zoroastrianism  in  opposition  to  the  nature 
worship  of  the  Arsacides.*  The  coins  of  the  Sas- 
sanian  dynasty,  which  abound,  completely  confirm 
the  testimony  of  history.  On  all  of  them,  we  find 
the  symbols  of  fire  worship,  the  altar  and  his  at- 
tendant priests,  their  legends  being  no  longer  in 
Greek,  as  those  of  the  Arsacidae,  but  in  the  ancient 
language  of  Persia. 

Ardashir  was  succeeded  by  his  son,  Shahpur  I. 
(A.D.  240),  who  worthily  carried  out  his  father's 
schemes.  After  a  brief  war  with  an  Arabian  chief 
who  had,  during  his  absence  in  Khorassan,  seized 
Jezireh  (Mesopotamia),  and  fortified  himself  in  the 
fortress  of  Al  Hathr  (Hatra),  which  had,  as  we  have 
seen,  already  successfully  defied  the  arms  of  Trajan 
and  Severus,  he  passed  on  to  Nisibis,  carrying  terror 
and  devastation  into  the  Roman  provinces  on  the 

reigned.  In  the  northern  districts,  it  appears  from  the  Armenian 
chronicles,  that  the  struggle  was  prolonged  for  some  time,  Khosru, 
the  then  king  of  Armenia,  having  raised  an  army  of  Georgians  and 
Huns,  with  whom  he  devastated  Assyria  as  far  south  as  Ctesiphon. 
Khosru  is  said  to  have  been  victorious  for  ten  years.  On  his 
murder,  in  A.D.  252,  the  Arsacidan  rule  in  Armenia  finally  ended. 
*  Gibbon  has  further  stated  (though  he  does  not  quote  his  au- 
thority) that  Ardashir  was  recognized  in  a  solemn  assembly  at 
Balkh.  If  so,  he  must  have  subdued  Bactria,  but  strictly  speak- 
ing, this  province  was  not  absorbed  into  Persia  till  the  reign  of 
Julian,  130  years  later. 
L 


162  HISTORY  OF   PERSIA. 

Euphrates  and  Tigris.  The  siege  of  Nisibis  was 
long  and  tedious,  but,  at  length,  according  to  Per- 
sian writers,  Heaven  heard  the  prayers  of  their  de- 
vout emperor,  and  the  walls  of  the  city,  like  those 
of  Jericho,  yielded  to  religious  influence  what  they 
had  refused  to  military  genius.  Pursuing  his  con- 
quests, Carrhse  fell  before  his  victorious  arms,  and, 
shortly  afterwards,  in  a  great  battle  between  him  and 
the  aged  Valerian,  the  Roman  emperor  was  himself 
taken  prisoner  near  Edessa,  A.D.  260,  together  with 
a  large  part  of  his  army.*  It  is  not  certain  what 
became  of  Valerian,  and  the  stories  of  his  cruel 
treatment  by  Shahpur  are  probably  exaggerated  ;  but 
on  the  sculptures  at  the  ruins  of  Shahpur  near  Ka- 
zerun,  and  at  Nakhsh-i-Rustam,  which  we  shall  de- 
scribe bye  and  bye,  we  have,  unquestionably,  a 
native  record  of  what  the  Persian  ruler  rightly 
deemed  the  chief  glory  of  his  reign.  On  these 
sculptures  the  position  of  the  figures  indicates  the 
complete  humbling  of  the  Romans. 

But  a  day  of  retribution  was  at  hand.  Odgena- 
thus,  prince  of  Palmyra,  whose  magnificent  presents 
Shahpur  had  rejected  with  disdain  in  the  hour  of  his 
triumph,  collected  a  small  army  from  the  villages  of 

*  Trebellius  Pollio  has  preserved  a  haughty  letter  from  Shahpur 
to  his  allies  and  vassals,  and  the  curious  replies  of  three  of  them 
(Hist.  August.  Script.).  In  this  war,  the  kings  of  Bactria,  Albania 
(Georgia),  and  of  Chersonesus  Taurica,  warned  the  Roman  gen- 
erals to  keep  their  forces  together,  as,  if  so,  they  would  join  them 
against  Shahpur ;  but  any  advice  recommending  a  spirited  course 
of  action  would  have  failed  of  recognition  by  such  a  ruler  as  Gal- 
lienus. 


HISTORY   OF    PERSIA.  163 

Syria  and  the  tents  of  the  desert,  and  attacking  the 
Persian  army,  laden  with  booty  from  the  sack  of 
Caesarea,  routed  it  in  several  engagements,  and  fol- 
lowed it  nearly  to  the  walls  of  Ctesiphon.  "By 
this  exploit,"  says  Gibbon,  "  Odaenathus  laid  the 
foundation  of  his  future  fame  and  fortunes.  The 
majesty  of  Rome,  oppressed  by  a  Persian,  was  pro- 
tected by  a  Syrian  or  an  Arab  of  Palmyra. ' '  The 
reigns  of  his  immediate  successors,  Hormazd  I.  and 
Varahran  I.,  leave  nothing  worthy  of  record,  ex- 
cept, perhaps,  the  destruction  of  Mani  or  Manes, 
the  celebrated  founder  of  the  Manichaean  heresy,  by 
the  zealous  followers  of  Zoroaster.  The  religion  of 
which  Mani  professed  himself  the  founder,  if  not 
the  inspired  prophet,  appears  to  have  been  a  mixture 
of  the  Hindu  doctrine  of  metempsychosis,  of  the 
principles  of  good  and  evil,  and  of  Christianity. 
He  was  fond  of  claiming  for  himself  the  name  of 
Paraclete,  and  of  asserting  that  he  was  the  promised 
"Comforter." 

In  the  reign  of  the  second  Varahran,  the  Roman 
arms  were  successful  under  Cams,  who,  rejecting  the 
offers  of  the  Persian  ambassadors,  crossed  with  his 
victorious  forces  the  whole  of  Mesopotamia,  and  (in 
this  superior,  alike,  to  Trajan  and  Severus)  captured 
both  Seleucia  and  Ctesiphon ;  nor  would  he  have  pro- 
bably stayed  his  hand  till  all  Persia  was  at  his  feet, 
had  his  career  not  been  arrested  by  a  thunder-storm, 
in  or  by  which  he  himself  lost  his  life.  Gibbon  (from 
Synesius)  gives  a  picturesque  story  of  the  visit  of 
Persian  ambassadors  to  the  Roman  camp,  and  tells 


164  HISTORY   OF    PERSIA. 

us  how  they  found  the  old  emperor  seated  on  the 
grass,  scarcely  distinguishable  by  a  richer  dress  from 
the  soldiers  around  him,  with  his  supper  before  him 
of  a  piece  of  stale  bacon  and  a  few  hard  peas.  Taking 
off  a  cap  he  wore  to  cover  or  conceal  his  baldness, 
the  Roman  emperor  bid  them  assure  their  master 
that  unless  he  at  once  acknowledged  the  superiority 
of  Rome  "  he  would  render  Persia  as  naked  of  trees 
as  his  own  head  was  destitute  of  hair."* 

Somewhat  later,  in  the  reign  of  Narses,  a  war  of 
greater  and  more  important  dimensions  took  place, 
some  details  of  which  must  be  given,  as  throwing 
considerable  light  on  the  policy  of  the  Roman  and 
Persian  leaders  respectively.  We  have  already  stated 
that  the  Persians  were  ever  anxious  to  secure  either 
the  actual  possession  of  the  adjoining  province  of 
Armenia,  or  to  be  at  least  on  friendly  terms  with  it, 
the  Romans,  on  the  other  hand,  being  equally  de- 
sirous of  aiding  the  native  tribes  as  a  set  off  against 
the  constant  hostility  of  the  Persians.  Thus,  during 
the  reign  of  Valerian,  Armenia  had  been  seized  by 
the  Persians,  and  its  monarch  slain ;  his  youthful 
son,  however,  Tiridates,  escaped  to  Rome,  where, 
acquiring  many  arts  he  could  not  have  learned  in 
Armenia,  he  soon  showed  himself  worthy  of  his 
teachers.  Of  great  courage  and  personal  strength, 
even  Olympia  recognized  him  a  victor  in  one  of  its 
games.  But  Tiridates  was  more  than  a  mere  soldier ; 
he  was  grateful  to  those  with  whom  he  had  passed 
his  long  exile;  moreover,  Licinius,  the  intimate 

*  See  also  Vopiscus,  ap.  Hist.  August.  Script. 


HISTORY  OF   PERSIA.  l6$ 

friend  and  constant  companion  of  Galerius,  owed 
his  life  to  the  personal  prowess  of  Tiridates  :  hence, 
when  Galerius  was  associated  in  the  empire  by  Dio- 
cletian, the  investiture  of  the  distinguished  Arme- 
nian, as  the  restored  king  of  his  native  land,  was  an 
act  as  natural  as  it  was  wise. 

On  his  return  to  Armenia,  Tiridates  was  univer- 
sally received  with  the  greatest  joy,  the  rule  of  the 
Persians  during  the  previous  twenty-six  years  having 
been  marked  by  the  tyranny  the  usual  accompani- 
ment of  their  government.  Thus,  though  they  erected 
many  buildings  of  splendor,  the  money  for  them  had 
been  wrung  from  the  hard  hands  of  the  Armenian 
peasantry ;  the  religion  of  Zoroaster  had  been  rigor- 
ously enforced,  and  the  statues  of  the  deified  kings 
of  Armenia,  with  the  sacred  images  of  the  sun  and 
moon,  had  been  broken  in  pieces  by  the  conquerors. 
At  first,  all  went  well  with  Tiridates,  and  he  expelled 
the  aggressive  Persians  from  Armenia ;  but  here  his 
career  was  arrested,  and  the  restored  king  of  Arme- 
nia, though  a  soldier  of  renown,  had,  after  the  loss 
of  a  great  battle,  to  take  refuge  for  a  second  time 
with  his  Roman  friends,  involving  as  this  did,  al- 
most necessarily,  a  new  war  with  Persia,  to  avenge 
alike  the  wrongs  of  Tiridates  and  the  injured  majes- 
ty of  Rome. 

To  direct  the  whole  force  of  the  empire  against 
the  Persian  ruler,  Diocletian  himself  took  up  his 
abode  at  Antioch,  while  the  command  of  the  legions 
was  given  to  the  intrepid  Galerius,  for  this  purpose 
summoned  from  the  banks  of  the  Danube.  But  his 


1 66  HISTORY   OF    PERSIA. 

former  bravery  did  not  here  avail  him,  not  impossi- 
bly because  the  troops  he  had  with  him  were  of  an 
inferior  quality,  a  force  gathered  chiefly  from  the 
enervated  denizens  of  the  oriental  towns  or  from  the 
yet  more  unwarlike  natives  of  Asia  Minor.  In  the 
third,  it  would  seem,  of  three  battles,  the  army  of 
Galerius,  worn  out  by  the  heat  and  want  of  water, 
was  surrounded  and  destroyed  by  the  Persians  in  the 
great  plain  below  Carrhse,  on  nearly  the  same  ground 
which  had  before  witnessed  the  death  of  Crassus  and 
the  overthrow  of  his  legions.  Tiridates,  after  fight- 
ing to  the  last,  saved  his  life  by  swimming  the  Eu- 
phrates, and  Galerius,  in  great  disgrace,  returned  to 
Diocletian.  Nor  did  he  escape  without  a  public 
chastisement  of  his  misfortune.  "  The  haughtiest  of 
men,"  says  Gibbon,  "clothed  in  his  purple,  but 
humbled  by  the  sense  of  his  fault  and  misfortunes, 
was  obliged  to  follow  the  emperor's  chariot  above  a 
mile  on  foot,  and  to  exhibit  before  the  whole  Court 
the  spectacle  of  his  disgrace." 

But  neither  Diocletian  nor  Galerius  were  men  to 
remain  long  quiet  under  unavenged  wrongs.  An 
army  having  been  rapidly  collected,  this  time  from 
the  tried  veterans  of  Illyria,  aided  by  Gothic  auxil- 
iaries in  Imperial  pay,  Galerius  again  crossed  the  Eu- 
phrates, and,  avoiding  the  heats  of  the  plain  coun- 
tries by  clinging  to  the  friendly  mountains  of  Arme- 
nia, secured,  in  this  way,  ground  especially  favorable 
for  his  most  important  arm,  his  infantry.  His  plans 
were  crowned  with  success.  A  night  attack,  gene- 
rally fatal  as  these  are  to  Eastern  forces,  surprised 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  167 

the  Persians  with  their  horses  tied  up,  and  ended  in 
the  total  defeat  of  Narses.  All  his  baggage,  includ- 
ing his  wives  and  children,  fell  into  the  hands  of  the 
Roman  general,  who,  emulating  the  example  of 
Alexander,  treated  them  with  the  respect  due  to 
their  age,  sex,  and  dignity. 

The  result  was  a  conference  between  the  emperors 
and  the  Persian  ambassador  at  Nisibis,  with  the  view 
of  arranging  a  treaty  which  it  was  hoped  would 
secure  peace  for  a  long  time.  Both  sides  were  indeed 
weary  of  war:  Diocletian  was  only  anxious  to  pre- 
serve the  limits  of  the  Roman  empire,  as  suggested 
by  Augustus  and  acted  on  by  Hadrian,  while  the 
Persian  ambassador  pointed  out  that  the  Roman  and 
Persian  empires  were  the  two  "eyes  of  the  world," 
which  would  remain  imperfect  and  mutilated,  if 
either  of  them  was  put  out.  The  treaty,  at  length 
signed,  ceded  to  Rome  Mesopotamia  and  the  moun- 
tains of  the  Carduchi  (now  Kurdistan),  with  the 
right  to  nominate  the  kings  of  Iberia;  while,  at  the 
same  time  the  boundaries  of  the  kingdom  of  Arme- 
nia were  restored  and  enlarged.  The  acknowledged 
equity  of  the  grounds  on  which  this  treaty  rested, 
secured  a  peace  of  forty  years  for  the  Eastern  em- 
pire, and,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  Diocletian  and 
Maximian  celebrated  at  Rome  their  successes  and 
those  of  their  lieutenants,  by  a  triumph,  the  last  that 
Rome  ever  witnessed.  Indeed,  as  Gibbon  justly 
remarks,  "soon  after  this  time,  the  emperors  ceased 
to  vanquish,  and  Rome  ceased  to  be  the  capital  of 
the  empire." 


168  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

Into  the  legendary  history  of  the  great  ruler  who 
followed,  Shahpur  II.  (A.D.  310-380),  we  need  not 
enter,  nor  need  we  discuss  the  question  whether  the 
diadem  he  wore,  much  to  his  country's  advantage, 
for  the  unusual  period  of  seventy  years,  was  actually 
prepared  for  him  by  a  submissive  nobility,  while  he 
was  yet  an  unborn  baby.  They  who  care  for  such 
matters,  may  consult  the  Zeenat-al-Tuarikh,  or  Sir 
J.  Malcolm's  abridgement  of  it.  Suffice  it  to  say, 
that,  when  scarcely  more  than  a  boy,  Shahpur  made 
strenuous  resistance  to  the  Greeks,  Tatars  and  Arabs, 
who,  relying  on  his  youth  and  inexperience,  in- 
vaded his  empire ;  thus  showing,  from  the  very  first, 
the  metal  of  which  he  was  made.  Collecting  his 
forces,  we  are  told,  that  he  marched  against  the 
Arabs,  drove  them  out  of  his  country,  and  chasing 
them  across  the  Arabian  desert  to  Yathreb,  massa- 
cred every  one  he  met.  From  the  peculiar  punish- 
ment he  invented  to  create  terror  among  these  wild 
tribes,  he  obtained  his  distinguishing  name  of  Zu'- 
laktaf,  or  "Lord  of  the  shoulders."*  From  Hedjaz 
he  carried  his  arms  into  Syria,  and  turning  north- 
ward, swept  the  whole  country  to  the  gates  of 
Aleppo  ere  he  returned  to  Ctesiphon.  The  presence 

*  Mirkhond  says  he  was  only  sixteen,  and  that,  in  this  war,  he 
completely  secured  all  the  lower  end  of  Babylonia  and  crossing 
the  sea  by  Al  Cathif,  put  to  the  sword  many  of  the  people  of  Bah- 
rein and  Hedjiz  and  of  the  tribe  of  Temin.  It  is  clear,  there- 
fore, that  St.  Martin  was  wrong  in  supposing  that  the  Sassanians 
did  not  conquer  Mesene  till  A.D.  389.  As  we  shall  see  this  date 
(A.D.  326)  agrees  well  with  the  narrative  in  Ammianus  of  the  fatal 
march  of  Julian  thirty-seven  years  later. 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  169 

of  such  a  foe  awakened  the  fast  declining  spirit  of 
the  Romans,  yet,  during  the  later  days  of  the  reign 
of  Constantine  the  prudence  of  Shahpur  prevented 
an  open  rupture. 

With  the  death  of  Constantine  matters  changed, 
and  the  despot  of  the  East  conceived  himself  bound 
to  repress  the  despot  of  the  West.  Five  provinces 
had  been  ceded  to  Rome  after  the  peace  of  Galerius, 
and  these  he  felt  it  his  duty  to  recover,  by  treaty,  if 
possible ;  if  not,  by  force  of  arms.  The  disturbed 
state  of  the  Western  Empire  favored  his  views ;  the 
legions  were  corrupt  and  lacked  the  firm  grasp  of 
the  veteran  emperor;  the  great  Tiridates,  after  a 
reign  of  fifty-six  years,  was  no  more,  though,  by  be- 
coming a  Christian  shortly  before  his  death,  be  had 
strengthened  the  link  that  bound  Armenia  to  Con- 
stantinople. Still  a  large  faction  remained  in  Ar- 
menia who,  misliking  the  change  of  life  Christianity 
demanded,  were  ready  to  aid  Shahpur,  though  with 
the  certain  suppression  of  their  own  political  inde- 
pendence. Hence,  the  might  of  Shahpur,  soon 
overcame  Chosroes,  the  puny  successor  of  Tiridates, 
and  hence,  too,  the  siege  by  the  Persian  of  Nisibis 
and  his  occupation  of  great  part  of  Mesopotamia. 
Yet  it  must  not  be  supposed  that  the  Romans  tamely 
succumbed  to  the  rising  power  of  the  Persians.  So 
far  from  it,  it  is  clear  that  the  son  and  successor  of 
Constantine,  Constantius,  did  his  best  to  secure  the 
frontier  of  his  empire  from  the  incessant  inroads  of 
their  light  horse.  Details  in  these  matters  are  want- 
ing, and  accounts  vary ;  but  it  seems  certain  that, 


170  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

of  nine  bloody  fields,  in  two  of  which  Constantius 
commanded  in  person,  the  general  result  was  in 
favor  of  the  Persian. 

Of  these,  the  most  memorable  was  the  battle  of 
Singara,  in  which,  as  long  as  daylight  lasted,  the 
Persians  failed  to  hold  their  own  against  the  Roman 
veterans,  who  forced  their  camp  :  but  the  following 
night  told  a  different  tale.  In  the  silence  of  that 
night,  Shahpur  drew  together  his  forces,  many  of 
which  had  been  watching  the  action  of  the  previous 
day  on  secure  heights,  and  falling  on  the  Roman 
troops,  dispersed  here  and  there  and  rejoicing  in  the 
plunder  of  the  Persian  camp,  cut  them  to  pieces, 
with  an  incredible  slaughter.  The  end  therefore, 
of  the  battle  of  Singara,  though  it  was  victorious  at 
its  commencement,  was  the  entire  rout  and  destruc- 
tion of  the  army  of  Constantius.  Yet  the  Persian, 
superior  in  the  plain,  where  he  had  ample  room  to 
manoeuvre  his  chief  arm,  cavalry,  failed  as  surely 
when  he  had  to  besiege  a  fortified  town ;  hence  he 
was  forced  to  raise  the  siege  of  Nisibis,  with  a  loss, 
it  is  said,  of  20,000  men.  Moreover,  as  he  was, 
about  the  same  time,  invaded  from  the  North  by  the 
Massagetae,  he  thought  it  as  well  to  patch  up  a  hasty 
peace  with  Constantius,  who,  at  the  same  time,  was 
nothing  loath  to  do  so,  as,  by  the  death  of  his  two 
brothers,  he  was  involved  in  a  civil  contest  demand- 
ing the  utmost  exertion  of  his  undivided  strength. 
The  rulers  of  the  East  and  the  West,  were,  as  it 
happened,  at  almost  the  same  time,  though  at  a  dis- 
tance of  more  than  two  thousand  miles,  engaged  in 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  171 

repelling,  as  best  they  could,  the  impetuous  on- 
slaught of  the  barbarians  of  the  North.  If  Shahpur 
had  his  Massagetae  to  deal  with,  Constantius  found 
an  equal  foe  in  the  Sarmatians. 

At  the  conclusion  of  these  two  wars,  an  attempt 
to  establish  a  treaty  between  the  rival  emperors, 
which  Constantius  seems  to  have  been  really  anxious 
to  effect,  was  frustrated  by  an  adventurer  named  An- 
toninus, and  Shahpur,  unfolding  his  standards, 
crossed  the  head  waters  of  the  Euphrates  in  another 
invasion  of  Asia  Minor.  Finding  most  of  the  forti- 
fied towns  well  prepared  to  resist  him,  he  wisely,  for 
a  time,  kept  aloof  from  needless  sieges,  yet  was  he 
tempted,  in  a  moment  of  rashness,  to  attempt  that 
of  Amida,  and,  though  successful,  lost  the  flower  of 
his  army,  indeed,  if  the  historians  of  the  time  can 
be  credited,  so  large  a  number  as  30,000  men.  In 
fact,  the  actual  result  of  a  campaign,  which  was  to 
have  suppressed  the  Roman  power  in  the  East,  was 
limited  to  the  reduction  of  the  two  fortified  towns 
of  Singara  and  Bezabde.  Nor  indeed  did  the  late 
return  of  Constantius  himself  to  the  scene  do  any 
thing  towards  redeeming  the  waning  reputation  of 
Rome ;  especially  as  he  failed  with  disgrace  to  re- 
cover the  captured  Bezabde,  though  its  walls  were 
repeatedly  shaken  by  the  most  powerful  battering 
rams  then  available.  But  Shahpur  was  now  too  op- 
posed by  a  new  emperor ;  who,  had  he  had  know- 
ledge comparable  with  his  energy,  might  have  won 
back  for  Rome  nearly  all  she  had  lost.  In  Julian, 
many  hoped,  perhaps  some  thought,  the  best  times 


172  HISTORY  OF    PERSIA. 

of  Rome  were  returning,  and  Shahpur  at  once  made 
overtures  of  peace  to  him,  but  in  vain. 

Of  this  strange  genius,  yet  most  remarkable  man, 
we  have  not  space  to  say  much ;  but  this  is  clear, 
that,  to  a  mind  deeply  devoted  to  the  philosophic 
fancies  of  his  age,  he  added  the  most  burning  desire 
to  distinguish  himself  as  a  military  leader.  Indeed, 
he  seems  to  have  felt  himself  a  second  Alexander. 
"The  successor  of  Cyrus  and  of  Artaxerxes,"  says 
Gibbon,  "was  the  only  rival  he  had  deemed  worthy 
of  his  arms,  and  he  resolved  by  a  final  conquest  of 
Persia,  to  chastise  the  haughty  nation,  which  had 
so  long  resisted  and  insulted  the  majesty  of  Rome." 
In  his  "Caesares,"  Julian  himself  remarks,  "Alex- 
ander reminds  his  rival,  Caesar,  who  depreciated  the 
fame  and  the  merit  of  an  Asiatic  victory,  that  Crassus 
and  Antony  had  felt  the  Persian  arrows;  and  that 
the  Romans,  in  a  war  of  three  hundred  years,  had 
not  yet  subdued  a  single  province  of  Mesopotamia 
or  Assyria." 

But,  except  in  zeal,  and  we  are  bound  to  add,  in 
personal  courage,  Julian  altogether  lacked  the  ability 
for  carrying  out  the  schemes  he  had  proposed  to 
himself,  while  he  had  to  deal  with  a  population  cor- 
rupted by  wealth  and  luxury,  and  was  himself,  from 
his  change  of  religion,  inimical  to  many  whom  he 
might  otherwise  have  conciliated.  It  is  certain  too, 
that  Julian  had,  by  a  strange  want  of  judgment, 
greatly  alienated  the  affections  of  those  on  whom  he 
had  chiefly  to  rely.  Thus  at  Antioch,  we  learn  that, 
during  a  season  of  scarcity,  he  adopted  the  dan- 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  1/3 

gerous  plan  of  fixing  by  authority,  the  value  of  corn, 
and  when  this  corn  was  bought  up,  as  it  was  sure  to 
be  by  a  few  wealthy  speculators,  consigned  to  prison 
the  whole  of  the  senators  of  that  city,  200  in  number. 
It  is  no  matter  of  surprise,  therefore,  that  with  such 
causes  of  dissension  at  home,  Julian  was  worse  than 
usually  prepared  to  attack  such  an  enemy  as  he  who 
then  held  the  sceptre  of  the  Persians.  Early  in 
March  A.D.  363,  Julian  took  the  field  from  Antioch, 
and  passing  Berrhoea  and  Hierapolis,  advanced  at 
once  to  Carrhae,  the  neighborhood  of  which  had 
been  already  fatal  to  two  Roman  armies.  There, 
with  a  singular  want  of  generalship  dividing  his 
army,  he  left  Procopius  to  secure  the  upper  waters 
of  the  Tigris,  while  he  himself  took  the  line  of  the 
Euphrates ;  a  plan,  which,  for  its  success,  depended 
much  on  the  support  of  the  king  of  Armenia,  who, 
it  is  said,  was  not  over-pleased  with  some  injudicious 
letters  he  had  received  from  Julian. 

Following  the  course  of  the  Euphrates,  Julian 
arrived  in  a  month  at  Circesium  (Carchemish),  the 
extreme  limit  of  the  Roman  dominions,  one  division 
of  his  army  being  under  the  command  of  a  certain 
Hormazd,  who,  though  of  the  royal  blood  of  Persia, 
had  from  early  youth  attached  himself  to  the  cause 
of  the  Romans.  In  his  advance  Julian  seems  to  have 
met  with  little  serious  resistance,  the  inhabitants  of 
the  open  towns,  for  the  most  part,  taking  to  flight; 
his  rear  and  flanks,  however,  suffered  incessant  an- 
noyance from  clouds  of  mounted  Arabs,  in  the  pay 
of  Persia,  who  lost  no  opportunity  of  harassing  his 


174  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

troops.  "The  fields  of  Assyria,"  says  Gibbon, 
"were  devoted  by  Julian  to  the  calamities  of  war; 
and  the  philosopher  retaliated  on  a  guiltless  people  the 
acts  of  rapine  and  cruelty,  which  had  been  com- 
mitted by  their  haughty  master  in  the  Roman  pro- 
vinces. The  trembling  Assyrians  summoned  the 
rivers  to  their  assistance,  and  completed  with  their 
own  hands  the  ruin  of  their  country." 

But  the  Romans  struggled  on,  and  with  undaunted 
perseverance  overcame  every  obstacle;  Perisabor 
and  Maozamalcha  were  taken  by  hard  fighting ;  and 
Julian  exclaimed  with  natural  pride,  "We  have  now 
provided  some  materials  for  the  sophist  of  Antioch  " 
(Libanius).  In  a  few  days  more,  the  passage  of  the 
Tigris  was  forced,  and  the  Persians  driven  under  the 
walls  of  Ctesiphon.  But  here,  Julian's  real  difficul- 
ties began;  indeed  each  Mesopotamian  campaign 
seems  to  repeat  the  previous  one.  The  defection  of 
the  king  of  Armenia  and  his  own  incapacity  had 
prevented  Procopius  from  joining  the  Emperor,  by 
a  parallel  march  along  the  Tigris,  and  Julian  was 
forced,  though  most  reluctantly,  to  give  up  the  siege 
of  the  great  capital  of  Shahpur ;  at  the  same  time, 
rashly  burning  his  boats  and  fancying  himself  another 
Alexander,  he  advanced  like  a  madman,  in  pursuit 
of  the  still  retreating  enemy,  giving  willing  heed  to 
every  idle  tale  he  could  pick  up  from  the  Persian 
deserters  of  the  terror  his  onward  march  inspired. 
The  fate  of  the  Roman  army  was  not  long  deferred ; 
the  Persians  gradually  closed  round  them ;  food  was 
scarce,  and  the  heat  intolerable  to  the  hardy  warriors 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  175 

of  Germany  and  Gaul;  till,  at  length,  having  lost 
thousands  of  his  best  troops,  Julian  was  himself  slain, 
after  a  brief  but  remarkable  reign  of  a  year  and 
eight  months.*  His  successor,  Jovian,  accepted 
terms  of  peace  few  Roman  leaders  would  have  ac- 
knowledged. The  five  provinces  beyond  the  Tigris, 
ceded  by  the  grandfather  of  Shahpur,  were  restored 
by  him;  Nisibis  and  Singara  given  up;  while  a  spe- 
cial article  required  the  abandonment  for  ever  by 
the  Romans  of  the  kingdom  of  Armenia.  "The 
predecessors  of  Jovian,"  adds  Gibbon,  "had  some- 
times relinquished  the  dominion  of  distant  and  un- 
profitable provinces ;  but  since  the  foundation  of  the 
city,  the  genius  of  Rome,  the  god  Terminus  who 
guarded  the  boundaries  of  the  Republic,  had  never 
retired  before  the  sword  of  a  victorious  enemy."  In 
fact,  the  treaty  assented  to  by  Jovian,  gave  up  nearly 
all  that  the  victories  of  Galerius  had  secured. 

Little  is  known  of  the  history  of  Shahpur  after  the 

*  Ammianus  gives  an  interesting  account  of  the  state  of  the 
country  through  which  Julian  marched,  and  is  mainly  supported  by 
the  narratives  of  Magnus  of  Charrae,  and  of  Eutychianus  of  Cap- 
padocia,  who  also  accompanied  Julian  (see  John  Malala).  These 
writers  all  speak  of  what  they  call  the  great  canal  of  the  Euphrates, 
and  of  the  dams  across  the  rivers,  of  which  Layard  gives  such  a 
vivid  description.  With  Arrian,  they  call  these  dams  cataracts, 
a  word  which  Yaciit  says  is  of  Nabathaean  origin.  These  dams 
were  not  to  prevent,  as  Layard  thinks,  hostile  shipping  ascending 
the  rivers,  but  rather  to  keep  up  a  sufficient  supply  of  water  for 
irrigation.  The  great  canal  is  doubtless  the  Nahar-al-malk  which, 
according  to  Abydenus,  was  made  by  Nebuchadnezzar.  The 
Greek  Armacal  is,  I  supect,  but  a  transposition  of  the  letters  of 
the  previous  word. 


176  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

conclusion  of  the  Roman  war,  but  he  is  said  to  have 
contended  with  doubtful  fortune  for  the  possession 
of  Armenia,  and  to  have  made  a  fresh  irruption  into 
the  Roman  dominions.  Finally,  in  the  reign  of 
Gratian,  he  ended  his  long  and  glorious  reign  of 
fully  seventy  years. 

His  two  immediate  successors,  Ardashir  II.  and 
Shahpur  III.,  did  nothing  worthy  of  commemora- 
tion; nor  is  the  third  one  in  succession,  Varahran 
IV.,  famous  for  anything  except  as  the  founder  of 
the  city  of  Kirmanshah,  and  the  part-executor  of  the 
famous  sculptures  of  Takt-i-Bostan,  five  miles  from  it. 
The  inscriptions  still  remaining  there,  first  deci- 
phered by  De  Sacy,  leave  no  doubt  that  they  were 
chiefly  made  by  his  order,  to  perpetuate  his  own 
name  and  the  glory  of  Shahpur  II. 

The  rule  of  the  next  emperor,  Jezdigird,  is  vari- 
ously related  by  the  writers  of  the  East  and  the 
West,  the  former  speaking  of  him,  as  an  implacable 
and  worthless  tyrant,  the  latter  as  a  wise  and  virtuous 
prince.  Perhaps  the  differing  tenor  of  these  reports 
is  traceable  to  the  fact  that  he  lived  on  terms  of 
friendship  as  well  as  of  peace  with  the  Roman  Arca- 
dius,  who,  at  his  death,  declared  him  the  protector 
of  his  son,  Theodosius  the  Second.  As  the  young 
man  grew  up,  the  ties  of  friendship  were  strength- 
ened between  the  two  empires,  and  the  influence  of 
the  Bishop  Marathas,  the  ablest  of  the  ministers  of 
Theodosius,  was  highly  beneficial  to  the  Christians, 
who  had  now  become  an  important  body  in  Persia. 
Hitherto  they  had  been,  with  some  reason,  held  to 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  177 

be  bad  subjects,  their  inclinations  leading  them  to 
support  the  views  of  the  Christian  emperors  of  Con- 
stantinople ;  but,  from  this  charge,  the  bishop,  at 
least  during  his  lifetime,  seems  to  have  successfully 
vindicated  them.  But  Persian  toleration  was  rarely 
of  long  endurance.  In  the  next  reign,  that  of 
Varahran  V,*  a  fierce  persecution  broke  out,  though 
the  king  himself  inclined  to  mercy ;  and  the  then 
Christian  prelate  having  imprudently  burnt  one  of 
the  fire  temples,  the  rage  of  the  populace  could  not 
be  restrained,  and  the  bishop  and  a  large  number 
of  the  Christians  were  put  to  death  with  great 
cruelty.  The  natural  result  of  these  excesses  was  a 
fresh  war  between  the  Romans  and  the  Persians,  pro- 
longed with  various  success :  as,  however,  the  Per- 
sians on  the  whole  had  suffered  the  most,  they  were 
willing  to  accept  terms  of  peace,  to  which  they  would 
hardly  otherwise  have  assented. 

About  the  year  A.D.  458,  Firuz  I.,  ascended  the 
throne,  and  was  soon  engaged  in  a  memorable  war 
with  the  Huns,  which,  after  lasting  for  several  years 
and  entailing  heavy  losses  on  the  Persians,  was 
finally  terminated  by  his  own  death  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  his  army.  It  was  during  the  latter  years  of 
the  reign  of  Kobad,  and  after  a  series  of  conflicts 

*  The  Oriental  writers  assert  that  Varahrdn  V.  made  a  voyage 
to  India  about  A.D.  435,  and  married  an  Indian  princess.  If  the 
story  be  true,  it  is  most  likely  that  India  means  Beluchistin,  or  else 
the  country  at  the  mouth  of  the  Indus.  Varahrin  V.  is  sometimes 
called  Gaur,  from  his  enthusiastic  passion  for  hunting  the  Gaur, 
or  wild  ass. 
M 


178  HISTORY   OF    PERSIA. 

between  the  East  and  the  West,  so  alike  in  character 
and  result,  as  to  be  wearisome  in  their  description, 
that  the  Romans,  to  prevent  the  constant  inroads  of 
the  Persians,  founded  a  new  colony  at  Dara,  about 
fourteen  miles  from  Nisibis,  with  walls  of  such 
strength  as  to  be  impregnable  to  any  machines  of 
war  their  enemies  could  bring  against  them.  "  Dara 
continued  more  than  sixty  years,"  says  Gibbon, 
"  to  fulfil  the  wishes  of  its  founders,  and  to  provoke 
the  jealousy  of  the  Persians,  who  incessantly  com- 
plained that  this  impregnable  fortress  had  been  con- 
structed in  manifest  violation  of  the  treaty  of  peace 
between  the  two  empires." 

At  length,  in  A.D.  531,  Khosrii  Nushirwan*  was 
chosen  emperor,  becoming  thus  the  contemporary  of 
the  great  law-maker,  Justinian.  Nushirwan  is  still  the 
synonym  in  the  mouth  of  every  Persian  for  wisdom, 
justice  and  munificence,  and  could  we  forget  his 
constant  perfidy,  an  evil  quality  about  which  his 
subjects  are  not  supposed  to  have  cared  much,  he 
well  deserved  a  reputation,  which  even  partial  his- 
torians have  not  perhaps  rated  too  highly.  He 
found  his  empire  groaning  under  every  kind  of 
abuse,  among  the  worst  being  the  prevalence  of  a 
sect,  who,  under  their  leader  Mazdac,  held  the  doc- 
trine of  community  of  women,  with  other  practices 

*  Abundant  myths  have  grown  up  around  the  name  of  Nushir- 
wan. A  proposal  is  said  to  have  been  made  in  his  youth,  that  he 
should  be  adopted  by  the  Emperor  Justin ;  and,  that  he  was 
baptized  as  a  Christian  a  little  before  his  death,  is  another  story 
about  which  there  is  more  than  doubt. 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  179 

which,  in  recent  years,  have  made  Mormonism  in- 
tolerable, even  in  the  far  West.  From  the  evil 
results  of  the  doctrines  promulgated  by  this  vaga- 
bond, Nushirwan  gradually  relieved  his  subjects, 
rooting  out  the  delusion  by  the  simple  process  of 
destroying  the  prophet  and  his  followers.  He  then 
restored  the  bridges,  rebuilt  towns  and  villages  which 
had  fallen  into  decay,  and  held  out  such  encourage- 
ment to  men  of  learning,  that  even  the  philosophers 
of  Greece  flocked  to  his  Court.  The  literature  of 
Greece  and  Rome  were  collected  by  his  diligence ; 
Aristotle  and  Plato  translated  into  Persian ;  and 
portions  of  what  we  now  know  to  have  been  ori- 
ginally in  Sanskrit,  as  the  so-called  "  Fables  of  Pil- 
pay,"  or  "Hito-pad6sa,"  were  brought  from  India. 
In  his  first  war  with  Justinian,  Nushirwan  main- 
tained his  superiority  by  the  extortion  from  the  hum- 
bled emperor  of  eleven  thousand  pounds  of  gold,* 
as  the  price  of  a  perpetual  peace !  and,  in  his  later 
reduction  of  Antioch  and  Syria  (A.D.  540),  and  in 
the  extension  of  the  Persian  territories  from  the 
banks  of  the  Phasis  to  the  Mediterranean,  and  from 
the  Red  Sea  to  the  Oxus  and  Jaxartes,  we  see  abun- 
dant proof  of  his  military  genius,  or  of  the  weak- 
ness of  the  Romans.  One  great  general  alone  with- 
stood his  further  progress,  and  the  veteran  Belisarius, 
recalled  from  his  Western  victories,  twice  arrested 
his  onward  advance  j  thus  achieving  a  success  which, 

*  The  peace  so  disgracefully  purchased  from  the '  Persians,  ena- 
bled Justinian  to  carry  on  his  wars  with  the  West,  and  to  reduce 
Carthage,  Sicily,  and  Italy. 


180  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

considering  the  scant  means  at  his  disposal  and  the 
character  of  the  Court  he  served,  must  be  considered 
remarkable. 

In  all  the  negotiations  which  took  place  between 
Justinian  and  Nushirwan,  the  latter  invariably  as- 
sumed the  tone  of  a  superior,  nor,  though  his  reign 
extended  to  nearly  forty-eight  years,  and  his  life  to 
more  than  eighty,  do  we  find  his  head  turned  by 
this  unusual  prosperity.  The  firmness  of  his  cha- 
racter enabled  him  to  resist  the  influence  of  the 
luxury  by  which  he  was  surrounded ;  he  neither  gave 
himself  up  to  it,  nor  permitted  it  in  others ;  indeed, 
but  little  before  his  death,  the  aged  monarch  led  in 
person  his  troops  to  the  attack  on  Dara  (A.D.  573), 
with  a  spirit  as  active  and  as  daring  as  he  had  shown 
in  his  earliest  enterprises.  The  last  days,  however, 
of  his  life,  were  marked  by  some  failures,  the  Em- 
peror Justin  having  yielded  to  the  importunities  of 
the  Turks,  who  offered  an  alliance  against  the  com- 
mon enemy;  and,  in  the  battle  of  Melitene,  the 
Scythian  chief  turned  the  flank  of  the  Persians,  at- 
tacked their  rear-guard,  in  the  presence  of  Nushir- 
wan himself,  and  pillaged  his  camp.  The  Romans, 
too,  on  their  side,  were  left  masters  of  the  field,  and 
their  general  Justinian,  after  attacking  Dara,  was 
permitted  to  erect  his  standard  on  the  shores  of  the 
Caspian.  This  inland  sea  was  now,  for  the  first 
time,  explored  by  a  hostile  fleet,  and  seventy  thou- 
sand captives  transplanted  from  the  shores  of  Hyr- 
cania  to  the  Island  of  Cyprus. 

The  reign  of  Nushirwan's  successor,  Hormazd,  is 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  l8l 

chiefly  remarkable  for  the  gallant  conduct  of  a  rebel 
chief,  who  bore  the  time-honored  name  of  Varahran. 
Hormazd  had  allowed  his  father's  empire  to  fall  into 
decay;  all  the  outlying  provinces,  Babylon,  Susa, 
Caramania,  Arabia,  India  and  Scythia,  were  in  revolt ; 
and  the  Romans,  taking  advantage  of  these  dissen- 
sions, had  made  constant  inroads  into  Mesopotamia 
and  Assyria. 

But  "  Persia  lost  by  a  king,  was  saved  by  a  hero." 
Varahran,  known  before  for  his  valor  at  the  siege 
of  Dara,  repelled  the  Tatar  host  near  the  Caspian 
gates,  but  was  less  successful,  when  shortly  afterwards 
he  was  attacked  by  the  veteran  troops  of  Rome,  un- 
der the  command  of  Romanus,  the  lieutenant  of  the 
emperor  Mauricius.  Having  on  this  occasion  re- 
ceived an  insulting  message  from  Hormazd,  he  threw 
off  his  allegiance,  with  the  ready  assent  of  his  troops 
and  of  the  people  generally,  to  whom  that  ruler  had 
made  himself  hateful.  A  revolution,  however,  broke 
out  at  Ctesiphon,  and  the  son  of  Hormazd,  Khosru 
II.  (Parviz),  ascended  his  father's  throne  (A.D.  591)  : 
but  in  conflict  with  Varahran,  he  was  hopelessly 
beaten,  and  condemned  to  take  refuge  within  the  do- 
minions of  Mauricius,  who  readily  espoused  his  cause. 

A  powerful  army  was  shortly  after  (A.D.  591)  as- 
sembled on  the  frontiers  of  Syria  and  Armenia,  under 
the  command  of  the  best  general  of  his  time,  Narses, 
with  orders  not  to  sheath  the  sword,  till  Khosru  was 
replaced  on  the  throne  of  his  ancestors.  "The 
restoration  of  Khosru  was  celebrated  with  feasts  and 
executions,  and  the  music  of  the  royal  banquet  was 


l82  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

often  disturbed  by  the  groans  of  dying  or  mutilated 
criminals." 

During  the  reign  of  Mauricius,  the  Persian  ruler 
was  not  forgetful  of  the  power  to  whom  he  owed  his 
throne;  the  cities  of  Martyropolis  and  of  Dara  were 
restored  to  the  Romans,  the  banks  of  the  Araxes  and 
the  shores  of  the  Caspian  forming  the  boundaries  of 
their  empire.  But  these  advantages  were  not  des- 
tined to  remain  for  many  years  under  the  command 
of  the  feeble  Constantinopolitans,  the  murder  of 
Mauricius  and  of  his  family  by  the  upstart  Phocas 
producing  such  a  revolution  as  might  easily  have 
been  foreseen.  When  Khosru  heard  of  this  murder 
he  instantly  declared  war  (nominally  at  least)  to 
avenge  the  death  of  his  benefactor,  and  doubtless,  at 
first,  owed  much  of  his  success  to  the  destruction  of 
the  unfortunate  Narses,  who  had  been  seized  by 
Phocas,  and  burnt  alive  in  the  market-place  of  Con- 
stantinople (A.D.  605).  Indeed,  during  the  short 
reign  of  this  usurper,  the  Persians  were  everywhere 
victorious:  "the  fortifications  of  Mardin,  Dara, 
Amida,  and  Edessa,"  says  Gibbon,  "were  besieged, 
reduced  or  destroyed  by  the  Persian  monarch ;  he 
passed  the  Euphrates,  occupied  the  Syrian  cities 
Hierapolis  and  Berrhaea  or  Aleppo,  and  soon  em- 
compassed  the  walls  of  Antioch,  with  his  irresistible 

arms The  first  intelligence  from  the  East, 

which  Heraclius  (the  successor  of  Phocas)  received, 
was  that  of  the  loss  of  Antioch :  but  the  ancient 
metropolis,  so  often  overturned  by  earthquakes,  or 
pillaged  by  an  enemy,  could  supply  but  a  small  and 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  183 

languid  stream  of  treasure  and  blood.  The  Persians 
were  equally  successful,  and  more  fortunate  in  the 
sack  of  Csesarea,  the  capital  of  Cappadocia,  and,  as 
they  advanced  beyond  the  ramparts  of  the  frontiers, 
the  boundary  of  ancient  war,  they  found  a  less  obsti- 
nate resistance  and  a  more  plentiful  harvest 

The  conquest  of  Jerusalem,  which  had  been  medi- 
tated by  Nushirwan,  was  achieved  by  the  zeal  of  his 

grandson The  sepulchre  of  Christ,  and  the 

stately  churches  of  Helena  and  Constantine  were 
consumed,  or  at  least  damaged  by  the  flames;  the 
devout  offerings  of  three  hundred  years  were  rifled  in 
one  sacrilegious  day.  Egypt  itself,  the  only  province 
which  had  been  exempt  since  the  time  of  Diocletian 
from  foreign  and  domestic  war,  was  again  subdued 
by  the  successors  of  Cyrus.  Pelusium,  the  key  of  that 
impervious  country,  was  surprised  by  the  cavalry 

of  the  Persians and  Chosroes  entered  the 

second  city  of  the  empire  (Alexandria),  which  still 
retained  a  wealthy  remnant  of  industry  and  com- 
merce   In  the  first  campaign,  another  army 

advanced  from  the  Euphrates  to  the  Thracian  Bos- 
phorus ;  Chalcedon  surrendered  after  a  long  siege, 
and  a  Persian  camp  was  maintained  for  ten  years  in 
the  presence  of  Constantinople.  The  sea  coast  of 
Pontus,  the  city  of  Ancyra,  and  the  Island  of  Rhodes, 
are  enumerated  among  the  latest  conquests  (A.D.  620) 
of  the  great  king,  and  if  Chosroes  had  possessed  any 
maritime  power,  his  boundless  ambition  would 
have  spread  slavery  and  desolation  over  the  pro- 
vinces of  Europe." 


184  HISTORY   OF    PERSIA. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  see,  in  this  long  career  of 
victory  and  plunder,  that  the  Persian  ruler  was  really 
consulting  his  own  tastes  and  that  of  his  people, 
rather  than  avenging  the  memory  of  Mauricius,  else, 
on  the  death  of  Phocas,  he  would  have  made  friends 
with  Heraclius,  who  had  already  sufficiently  pun- 
ished those  who  had  been  the  chief  agents  in  the 
fate  of  his  predecessor.  On  the  contrary,  Khosru 
rejected,  with  disdain,  the  repeated  embassies  of 
Heraclius,  entreating  him  to  spare  the  innocent,  to 
accept  a  tribute,  and  thus  to  give  peace  to  the  world. 
When,  on  the  treachery  of  the  Avars,  Heraclius  was 
compelled  to  fly  from  his  capital,  the  Persian  lieute- 
nant of  Khosru  at  Chalcedon,  pitying  his  fate,  of- 
fered to  send  an  embassy  for  aid  to  his  master.  "  It 
was  not  an  embassy,"  replied  the  tyrant  of  Asia, 
"it  was  the  person  of  Heraclius  bound  in  chains, 
that  he  should  have  brought  to  the  foot  of  my 
throne.  I  will  never  give  peace  to  the  emperor  of 
Rome,  till  he  has  abjured  his  crucified  God,  and 
embraced  the  worship  of  the  Sun." 

But  a  retribution  soon  followed,  little  anticipated 
from  the  previous  character  and  conduct  of  the 
Greek  emperor.  The  war  that  had  found  Heraclius 
the  slave  of  sloth  and  pleasure,  aroused  the  spirit 
of  a  hero.  "  The  Arcadius  of  the  palace  arose  the 
Caesar  of  the  camp;"  and  the  honor  of  Rome  and 
of  Heraclius  was  gloriously  retrieved  by  the  exploits 
and  trophies  of  six  adventurous  campaigns.  The 
sun  indeed  of  the  Sassanians  had  now  well-nigh  set. 
A  campaign  of  great  brilliancy  restored  the  pro- 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  185 

vinces  of  Asia  Minor,  and  the  hard-fought  battle  of 
Issus  the  losses  of  many  previous  years.  Pursuing 
his  march,  Heraclius  crossed  the  heights  of  Taurus, 
and  sweeping  the  plains  of  Cappadocia,  went  into 
winter  quarters  on  the  banks  of  the  Halys.  The 
following  year  saw  this  second  Hannibal  exploring 
his  perilous  way  through  the  mountains  of  Armenia, 
and  advancing  almost  on  the  footsteps  of  Antony  to 
Ganzaca,  the  ancient  capital  of  Media  Atropatene ; 
the  ruin  of  Urmiah,  one  of  the  traditional  birth- 
places of  Zoroaster,  in  some  degree  atoning  for  the 
spoil  of  the  Holy  Sepulchre.  Another  campaign 
carried  the  arms  of  the  Romans  to  the  neighborhood 
of  Kashan  and  Ispahan,  which  had  never  yet  been 
approached  by  a  Western  conqueror. 

Alarmed  at  the  successes  of  Heraclius,  Khosrii  re- 
called his  forces  from  the  Nile  and  the  Bosphorus 
and  three  formidable  armies  surrounded  the  camp 
of  the  emperor.  But  the  danger  was  met  by  a  gen- 
eral equal  to  the  occasion.  "Be  not  dismayed," 
exclaimed  the  intrepid  Heraclius,  "  with  the  aid  of 
heaven  one  Roman  may  triumph  over  a  horde  of 
barbarians.  If  we  devote  our  lives  for  the  salvation 
of  our  brethren  we  shall  obtain  the  crown  of  martyr- 
dom, and  OUB  immortal  reward  will  be  liberally  paid 
by  God  and  posterity. ' '  The  victory  which  ensued 
was  the  reply  to  his  prayers,  and  Heraclius  returned 
in  triumph  to  Constantinople  with  the  recovery  of 
three  hundred  Roman  standards  and  the  deliverance 
of  innumerable  captives  from  the  prisons  of  Edessa 
and  Alexandria.  The  reign  of  Khosrii  terminated 


1 86  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

after  thirty-eight  years  by  his  murder :  had  it  been 
six  years  shorter  it  would  have  been  one  of  unbroken 
success.  Historians  are  not  agreed  as  to  the  per- 
sonal share  Khosru  had  in  his  earlier  and  glorious 
wars,  and  some,  like  Malcolm,  attribute  all  his  gains 
to  the  ability  of  his  generals.  This  much,  however, 
is  certain  that  the  later  victories  of  Heraclius  nearly 
annihilated  his  former  power,  and  practically  de- 
stroyed the  rule  of  the  Sassanian  house. 

But  a  new  era  was  now  about  to  commence  for  the 
nations  of  the  East  and  a  revolution  to  take  place, 
which  has  impressed  a  lasting  character  on  a  large 
section  of  mankind.  Muhammed,  who  was  born 
during  the  reign  of  Nushirwan,  had  been  zealously 
preaching  his  new  religion,  and  a  willing  army  was 
now  ready  to  enforce  doctrines  so  acceptable  to  most 
of  those  to  whom  they  were  addressed.  The  re- 
ligion of  Muhammed,  though  containing  in  it  some 
noble  and  sublime  views,  directly  borrowed  from 
the  Bible,  exhibited  from  its  very  origin  the  cha- 
racter of  violence.  The  goods  of  this  world  and 
every  earthly  enjoyment  were  the  pious  prizes  of  the 
faithful  soldier  who  drew  his  sword  against  the 
enemies  of  Muhammed  :  moreover,  if  he  fell  in  this 
glorious  career,  a  paradise  was  open  for  his  recep- 
tion, with  all  the  pleasures  of  the  senses  at  his  fullest 
and  freest  disposal.  Nor  indeed  has  Mtihammedan- 
ism  even  now  lost  its  aggressive  character.  Dr. 
Earth  relates,  how,  in  the  centre  of  Africa,  he  found 
a  religious  war  in  full  force,  the  object  being  to  compel 
the  fetish-worshiping  Africans  to  embrace  its  tenets. 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  187 

Some  years  before  the  war  with  Heraclius,  Khosru 
had  received  a  letter  from  the  "camel-driver  of 
Mecca,"  enjoining  him  to  abjure  the  faith  of  his 
ancestors,  and  to  embrace  the  worship  of  the  "  One 
True  God,"  of  Whom  he,  Muhammed,  professed 
himself  the  Apostle.  The  indignant  monarch,  tear- 
ing the  letter  in  pieces,  cast  the  fragments  into  the 
Karasu,  by  the  side  of  which  he  was  then  encamped. 
To  this  action,  Muhammedan  writers  attribute  all 
the  subsequent  misfortunes  of  this  prince;  nor, 
indeed,  has  this  belief  even  now  faded  away.  Mal- 
colm, when  himself  halting  at  this  river,  in  1800, 
remarked  to  a  Persian  that  its  banks  were  very  high, 
and  its  waters,  therefore,  of  comparatively  little  use 
for  the  purposes  of  irrigation.  "It  once  fertilized 
the  whole  country,"  replied  the  zealous  Muham- 
medan, "but  its  channel  sank  with  horror  from  its 
banks  when-  that  madman,  Khosru,  threw  our  holy 
prophet's-  letter  into  the  stream;  which  has  ever 
since  been  accursed  and  useless." 

The  first  attacks  of  the  Arabs  were  repelled ;  but 
the  Khalif  Omar  continually  supplying  fresh  rein- 
forcements, the  battle  of  Kadesiah  well  retrieved 
their  former  disasters ;  and  the  glory  of  Persia,  as 
an  independent  country,  ceased  forever,  when  the 
famous  Darafsh-i-Kawani  was  captured  by  the  Arabs. 
The  sack  of  Madain  (Ctesiphon),  and  the  carnage 
of  Nehavend  followed,  and  the  empire  of  the  Sas- 
sanidse  and  with  it  the  religion  of  Zoroaster,  as  a 
national  faith,  fell  from  the  grasp  of  Yezdigird  III., 
the  last  feeble  ruler  of  this  house.  Thus  ended,  in 


1 88  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

A.D.  641,  a  dynasty  who  had  ruled  Persia  for  415 
years,  and  which  in  the  hands  of  Ardashir  I.,  Shah- 
pur  II.,  Nushirwan  and  Khosru  II.,  had  extended  its 
glories  from  the  sands  of  Libya  to  the  waters  of  the 
Indus. 

It  now  only  remains  for  me  to  notice  briefly  some 
of  the  remarkable  monuments  of  Sassanian  times 
still  remaining  in  Persia,  attesting  as  these  do  the 
power  of  the  great  monarchs  by  whom  they  were 
executed ;  and  I  will  take  first  those  of  Nakhsh-i- 
Rustam,  the  place  famous,  as  already  noticed,  for 
the  tomb  of  Darius.  From  Sir  R.  K.  Porter  we 
learn  that  there  are  here  three  figures ;  of  whom  the 
two  leaders  are  engaged  in  grasping,  with  out- 
stretched arms,  a  wreath  or  twisted  bandeau,  from 
which  hang  a  couple  of  waving  ends.  "  The  first 
figure,  which  holds  it  in  his  right  hand,  stands  on 
the  right  of  the  sculpture,  and  appears  to  be  a  king. 
He  is  crowned  with  a  diadem  of  a  bonnet  shape, 
round  which  runs  a  range  of  upward  fluted  orna- 
ments with  a  balloon-like  mass  rising  from  the  mid- 
dle of  the  crown*  ....  His  hair  is  full,  flowing, 
and  curled,  having  nothing  of  the  stiff  wig  appear- 
ance, so  remarkable  in  the  bas-reliefs  of  the  Achae-- 
menian  period.  The  beard  of  this  figure  is  very 
singularly  disposed.  On  the  upper  lip,  it  is  formed 

*This  head-dress  is  the  same  as  may  be  seen  on  a  large  number 
of  the  coins  of  the  Sassanian  dynasty  ;  it  is  still  represented,  though 
shorn  of  its  pearls  and  precious  stones,  in  the  high  cap  worn  by  the 
Parsees  of  Bombay.  The  coins  exhibit  several  different  varieties 
of  this  head-dress. 


'     HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  189 

like  moustachios,  and  grows  from  the  front  of  the 
ear,  down  the  whole  of  the  jaw,  in  neat,  short  curls, 
but  on  the  chin  it  becomes  of  great  length  (which, 
as  I  have  observed  before,  seems  to  be  the  lasting 
attribute  of  royalty  in  Persia),  and  is  tied  together, 
just  at  the  point  of  the  chin,  whence  it  hangs  like  a 

large  tassel* His  tunic  has  tight  long 

sleeves,  and  is  bound  by  a  belt  which  passes  over  the 
right  hip ;  the  folds  of  the  tunic  at  the  top  of  the 
belt  are  well  expressed  in  the  stone.  To  the  other 
side  of  this  girdle  it  is  probable  the  sword  is  at- 
tached, the  hilt  of  which  he  is  grasping  with  his  left 
hand.  On  my  arrival  afterwards  at  Shiraz,  a  Per- 
sian artist  showed  me  a  very  old  drawing  of  this  bas- 
relief,  where  the  present  mutilated  space  was  filled 
by  the  upper  part  of  the  figure  of  a  boy,  crowned 
with  a  diadem  like  the  personage  on  the  left,  and 
like  the  figure  of  the  king,  clasping  the  hilt  of  his 
sword  with  his  left  hand."  Opposite  to  the  king 
stands  a  figure  whose  closely  fitting  dress  suggests  a 
feminine  form.  A  third  figure  with  a  short  bushy 
beard  stands  behind  the  king.  The  composition  of 
the  piece  seems  to  indicate  a  royal  union,  and  may 
refer  to  Varahran  V.,  and  his  queen,  who,  besides 
being  the  partner  of  his  domestic  pleasures,  was,  as 
we  may  see  from  the  coins  of  the  period,  associated 
with  him  and  his  son  in  the  empire. 

*  Sir  R.  K.  Porter  had  not,  of  course,  seen  the  monuments  dis- 
covered at  Nimnid  and  elsewhere  by  Mr.  Layard  and  other  exca- 
vators. The  treatment  of  the  beard  would  seem  to  have  arrived 
at  its  culminating  point  of  care  and  completeness  as  early  as  the 
ninth  century  B.C. 


IQO  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

The  next  relief,  a  few  paces  from  the  former,  re- 
presents a  combat  between  two  horsemen,  and  has 
been  designed  with  much  spirit.  The  chief  figure, 
in  the  act  of  charging  his  opponent  with  a  spear, 
exhibits  considerable  grace  and  harmony  of  action. 
He  wears  a  winged  helmet  and  scaly  armor,  not  al- 
together unlike  that  of  the  Knights  Templars.  A 
second  and  prostrate  figure  lies  under  the  belly  of 
the  horse  of  the  principal  one.  A  third  relief  in  a 
more  perfect  state,  consists  of  four  figures,  the  chief 
one  of  which  can  hardly  be  any  one  but  Shahpur  I. 
Before  him  is  another  figure,  in  the  usual  dress  of  a 
Roman  soldier,  with  his  arms  extended  as  though 
seeking  mercy,  and  his  left  knee  bent.  There  is  no 
reason  to  doubt  that  we  have  here  the  well-known 
story  of  the  humbling  of  the  Roman  emperor  Vale- 
rian by  Shahpur  I.,  and  it  is  the  more  interesting  as 
the  work  is  clearly  that  of  a  Persian  artist.  It  has 
long  since  been  suggested  that  the  third  figure  to 
whom  Shahpur  is  giving  his  hand  is  Cyriades,  the 
wretched  nobody  he  is  said  to  have  placed  on  the 
throne.*  The  scale  of  this  stone  picture  is  colossal, 
the  whole  of  the  face  of  the  rock  having  been  exca- 
vated, and  a  tablet  formed  thirty-seven  feet  long,  the 
horse  alone  occupying  fourteen. 

On  a  fourth  sculpture  is  a  repetition  of  the  com- 
bat between  Varahran  V.,  (Gaur)  and  a  figure  whom 

*  This  portion  of  the  story  is  represented  elsewhere  with  slight 
differences.  At  Darabjerd,  Shahpur  is  placing  his  left  hand  on  the 
head  of  Cyriades  (Flandin,  PI.  31-33) ;  at  Shahpur  a  single  figure 
kneels  before  the  conqueror's  horse.  (Flandin,  PI.  48.) 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  igl 

Sir  R.  Porter  calls  a  Tatar  prince.  Though  muti- 
lated, it  is  in  some  respects  better  preserved  than  the 
former,  and  has  some  interest  from  the  fact  that  over 
the  whole  of  one  of  the  figures  are  indications  of  a 
once  perfect  coat  of  small  plate  mail,  the  special 
dress,  according  to  Heliodorus,  of  the  cataphracti 
or  heavy  cavalry.  The  long  pike,  as  noticed  by  the 
same  writer,  resembling  those  on  the  Achaemenian 
sculptures  at  Persepolis. 

The  fifth  sculpture  has  peculiar  excellence ;  and 
represents  two  men  on  horseback  meeting,  the  one 
bestowing,  the  other  receiving,  the  circlet  or  badge 
of  sovereignty.*  On  the  breast  of  the  ho.rses,  just 
above  their  shoulders,  are  inscriptions  in  Greek  and 
Pehlevi.  The  length  of  the  excavation  is  twenty- 
one  feet ;  and  the  monument  is  in  white  marble,  its 
surface  being  polished  and  still  well  preserved.  The 
general  sense  of  the  inscriptions  confirms  the  attri- 
bution of  one  of  the  figures  to  Ardashir  and  of  the 
other  to  Ormazd  or  (as  De  Sacy  calls  him)  Jupiter. 

The  next  sculptures  to  be  noticed  are  those  of 
Nakhsh-i-Regib,  a  portion  of  the  Persepolitan  range. 

*  Mr.  Edward  Thomas,  F.  R.  S.,  who  has  studied  the  details  of 
these  monuments  with  great  care  (Asiat.  Journal,  1868),  thinks  this 
subject  is  the  bestowal  by  Ormazd  of  the  imperial  cydaris  on  Ar- 
dashir Babekdn  for  his  victory  over  the  last  Arsakes,  whose  pros- 
trate form  is  identified  by  the  snake-crested  Median  helmet  he 
wears,  and  his  view  is  confirmed  by  the  attached  inscriptions. 
(Ker  Porter.i.  PI.  23.  Flandin,iv.  pi.  182.)  There  is  another 
sculpture  at  Nakhsh-i-Rustdm,  of  the  time  of  Narses,  perhaps 
representing  a  similar  investiture.  This  inscription  is  given,  but 
incorrectly,  by  Morier,  PI.  xxix.  1812.  See  however  Flandin,  PI. 
45,  relief  B,  and  Sculpt.  PI.  52,  relief  B. 


IQ2  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

Here  a  large  natural  recess  is  visible,  enclosing  sculp- 
tures evidently  representing  historical  events.  The 
one  to  the  right  is  the  same  in  subject,  but  smaller 
in  dimensions,  than  that  at  Nakhsh-i-Rustam,  and 
exhibits  two  horsemen  holding  between  them  the 
royal  circlet  ;*  its  style,  however,  suggests  a  later 
age  and  less  skilful  workmen.  It  has  moreover  been 
greatly  mutilated,  probably  as  Chardin  asserts,  by 
the  minister  of  the  son  of  Shah  Abbas,  the  marks 
of  savage  violence  being  but  too  visible.  The  next 
slab  occupies  the  centre  of  the  recess,  and  repeats 
the  same  subject,  only  that,  on  this  occasion,  the 
actors  ar,e  on  foot.  This  sculpture  is  unquestionably 
coeval  with  those  at  Nakhsh-i-Rustam.  The  third 
relief  is  the  largest,  and  probably  the  most  important. 
The  leading  personage  on  horseback,  behind  whom 
are  nine  followers,  is  evidently  the  king,  and  the 
whole  most  likely  represents  one  of  the  many  royal 
progresses.  The  king  wears  a  dress  of  silk,  or  of 
some  fine  texture,  felling  over  him  lightly,  f  The 
attendants  wear  Margian  helmets  of  steel,  an  ex- 
cellent specimen  of  which,  procured  by  Mr.  Layard, 
and  studded  with  golden  nails,  may  be  seen  in  the 
British  Museum.  On  the  inscription,  Shahpur  is 
called  "  King  of  kings,  king  of  Iran  and  Aniran." 

*  This  sculpture  seems  to  have  been  first  noticed  by  Sir  W. 
Ouseley,  but  not  to  have  been  recognized  by  either  Morier  or  Ker 
Porter.  It  may,  however,  be  seen  in  Flandin,  PI.  192,  relief  B. 

f  The  same  dress,  chain  armor  over  silk,  may  be  seen  on  many 
Buddhistic  figures,  frequently  brought  to  light  by  General  Cun- 
ningham, and  perhaps,  too,  on  some  of  the  Indo-Scythic  coins. 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  193 

Descending  into  the  plain,  Sir  R.  K.  Porter  found 
on  the  edge  of  the  mountain  a  range  of  sculptures, 
belonging  to  the  same  period,  but  evidently  never 
completed,  as  they  are  only  blocked  out.  The  most 
finished  of  them  consists  of  two  figures,  one  that  of 
a  woman,  in  light  and  delicate  drapery,  stretching 
out  her  right  hand  towards  her  companion,  who 
wears  the  royal  dress,  common  on  the  Sassanian  re- 
liefs. The  remainder  of  the  range  comprises  two 
more  sculptures,  both  containing  the  effigies  of  the 
king,  with  the  globular  crown,  a  profusion  of  curls, 
a  collar  and  ear-rings.  Sir  R.  K.  Porter  notices  also 
some  sculptural  remains  of  the  same  period  at  Rhey 
(Rhages),  representing  a  horseman  at  full  charge. 
In  this  case,  though  the  rock  has  been  smoothed 
away  for  a  space  of  about  sixteen  by  twelve  feet,  the 
sculpture  has  remained  unfinished. 

The  ruins  of  Shahpur,  about  fifteen  miles  north 
of  Kazerun,  are  among  the  most  celebrated  works 
of  Sassanian  times,  and  yet,  though  but  a  few  miles 
out  of  the  road,  they  have  been  passed  by  every 
traveler  from  Tavernier  and  Thevenot  down  to  Scott 
Waring :  it  was  not,  indeed,  till  Mr.  Morier  visited 
them  in  the  year  1809,  that  anything  was  really 
known  about  them.  Mr.  Morier  considers  that  the 
ruins  of  Shahpur  have  extended  over  a  circumference 
of  about  six  miles,  enclosing  a  tract  of  plain  and  a 
hill,  on  which  the  ancient  citadel  forms  a  conspicuous 
object.  Mr.  Morier  describes  the  position  as  one 
of  singular  grandeur  and  beauty,  and  adds:  "The 
first  object  which  attracted  our  attention,  was  a  mu- 

N 


194  HISTORY  OF    PERSIA. 

tilated  sculpture  of  two  colossal  figures  on  horse- 
back, carved  on  the  upper  superficies  of  the  rock. 
The  figure  to  the  right  was  the  most  injured,  the 
only  part,  indeed,  that  we  could  ascertain  with  pre- 
cision, was  one  of  the  front,  and  two  of  the  hinder 
feet  of  a  horse,  standing  over  the  statue  of  a  man, 
who  was  extended  at  his  full  length,  his  face  turning 
outwardly,  and  reposed  on  his  right  hand,  and  his 
attire  bearing  marks  of  a  Roman  costume.  A  figure 
in  the  same  dress  *  was  placed  in  an  attitude  of  sup- 
plication at  the  horse's  knees,  and  a  head  in  alto- 
relievo,  just  appeared  behind  the  hinder  feet 

The  next  piece  of  sculpture  (which,  like  the  former, 
is  carved  upon  the  mountain  of  the  citadel)  is  per- 
fect in  all  its  parts.  It  consists  of  three  grand  com- 
partments ;  the  central  and  most  interesting  repre- 
senting a  figure  on  horseback,  whose  dress  announces 

a  royal  personage A  quiver  hangs  by  his 

side ;  in  his  right  hand  he  holds  the  hand  of  a  figure 
behind  him,  which  stands  so  as  to  cover  the  whole 
hind-quarter  of  his  horse,  and  is  dressed  in  a  Roman 
tunic  and  helmet.  A  figure,  habited  also  in  the 
Roman  costume,  is  on  its  knees  before  the  head  of 
the  horse,  with  its  hands  extended,  and  a  face  be- 

*  This  is  clearly  another  representation  of  the  story  of  Valerian 
and  Shahpur :  the  figure  kneeling  may  be  Cyriades  awaiting  inves- 
$tur« ;  a  subject  more  than  once  repeated  with  varying  details.  On 
anpilxer,  but  somewhat  similar  sculpture,  the  Roman  emperor  is 
not  so  readily  recognized,  and  it  is  probable  that  this  one  refers  to 
some  other  victory  of  the  Persian  monarch.  It  may  be  added  that 
there  is  no  trace  in  any  of  these  reliefs,  of  any  barbarous  treatment 
of  the  emperor  on  the  part  of  his  captor. 


HISTORY  OF    PERSIA.  195 

traying  entreaty.  Under  the  feet  of  the  horse  is 
another  figure  extended,  in  the  same  attire  and  cha- 
racter as  that  of  the  other  two  Roman  figures ;  to 
the  right  of  the  tablet  stands  a  figure  (behind  that  in 
a  suppliant  attitude)  with  his  hands  also  extended, 
but  dressed  in  a  different  manner,  and,  as  far  as  we 
could  judge,  with  features  more  Egyptian  than  Euro- 
pean   In  another 

compartment  are  rows  of  people,  apparently  in  the 
attitude  of  supplication,  and  in  a  third,  rows  of  horse- 
men. The  whole  of  this  interesting  monument  is 
sculptured  on  a  very  hard  rock,  and  still  exhibits  a 
fine  polish.  On  the  opposite  side  of  the  river  is  a 
long  tablet  containing  a  multitude  of  figures,  the 
chief  of  whom  is  seated  alone  in  a  small  compart- 
ment, with  the  sword  between  his  legs,  on  the  pom- 
mel of  which  he  rests  his  hands."  From  the  number 
and  variety  of  the  figures  represented  to  the  right 
and  the  left  (in  one  compartment  a  man  is  approach- 
ing carrying  two  heads),  Mr.  Morier,  probably  with 
justice,  supposes  the  whole  scene  represents  the  king 
in  his  hall  of  audience,  surrounded  by  his  people, 
and  perhaps  by  the  representatives  of  the  nations 
tributary  to  him.  Further  on  Mr.  Morier  met  with 
another  sculpture,  which  he  thus  describes :  "In  the 
first  row,  at  the  top  on  the  right,  are  a  number  of 
slight  figures  with  their  arms  folded;  the  second  is 
filled  with  a  crowd,  some  of  whom  carry  baskets ; 
the  third  is  equally  covered ;  and  in  the  right  corner 
is  a  man  conducting  a  lion  by  a  chain.  In  the  fourth, 
and  just  opposite  the  king,  is  a  very  remarkable 


190  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

group,  whose  loose  and  folded  dresses  denote  In- 
dians. One  leads  a  horse,  whose  furniture  I  have 
drawn  with  some  care,  and  behind  the  horse  is  an 
elephant.  Under  this  and  close  to  the  ground  are 
men  in  Roman  costume ;  among  them  is  a  chariot, 
to  which  two  horses  are  harnessed."  On  recrossing 
the  river  Mr.  Morier  discovered  some  splendidly 
built  masonry,  each  stone  four  feet  long,  twenty- 
seven  inches  thick,  and  cut  to  the  finest  angles,  the 
front,  in  fact,  of  a  square  building,  the  area  of  which 
is  fifty-five  feet.  At  the  top  there  had  been  sphinxes 
couchant.  Beyond  this  again  were  the  remains  of  a 
small  theatre. 

It  is  natural  that  the  chief  subject  of  the  sculptures 
at  Shahpur  should  be  the  overthrow  of  the  emperor 
Valerian,  as  the  city  was  in  the  heart  of  the  ancient 
province  of  Persis.  Indeed  the  province,  of  which 
it  was  a  leading  town,  was  their  native  seat,  and  con- 
tained their  tombs,  palaces,  and  treasures ;  moreover, 
when  their  empire  was  overthrown,  it  was  still  as  a 
rule  administered  by  its  native  princes.  Here  it  is 
probable  that  the  fire-worship  was  never  wholly 
suppressed ;  indeed,  so  late  as  the  tenth  century, 
after  300  years  of  Muhammedanism,  Ibn  Haukal  ex- 
pressly observes  that  "no  district  or  town  of  Fars 
was  without  a  fire-temple."  Shahpur  itself,  like 
many  other  places  in  the  East,  suffered  less  from  the 
first  violence  of  the  Arabian  invasion  than  from  the 
wars  of  the  subsequent  native  dynasties :  it  gradually 
decayed,  as  have  nearly  all  the  sites  of  early  Persian 
greatness.  As  late,  however,  as  the  sixteenth  cen- 


HISTORY  OF  PERSIA.  197 

tury,  the  name  of  Shahpur  occurs  in  a  table  of  lati- 
tudes and  longitudes  attached  to  the  Ain-i  Akbari; 
its  position  is  marked  on  a  map  of  Cluverius  in  1672 ; 
and  D'Anville,  on  the  authority  of  the  Oriental 
writers,  has  so  called  a  district  of  Persia. 

Having  now  described  the  principal  monuments 
of  the  south  of  Persia,  we  must,  in  conclusion,  take 
a  brief  review  of  some  in  the  northern  part  of  the 
country,  which  are  not  less  worthy  of  attentive  no- 
tice and  study;  and  we  will  take  first  those  of 
Takht-i-Bostan,  the  throne  of  the  gardens,  a  portion 
of  the  great  rocky  mass  of  Behistan.  The  rock  itself 
is  craggy,  barren,  and  terrific ;  its  towering  heights 
frown  darkly  over  the  blooming  vale  of  Kirmanshah, 
but,  at  the  base  of  the  mountain,  bursts  forth  a  stream 
of  peculiar  clearness,  which  the  natives  have  named 
Shirin,  in  remembrance  of  the  celebrated  loves  of 
Khosru  and  the  beautiful  damsel  of  that  name. 

The  monuments  consist  of  two  lofty  and  deep 
arches,  excavated  with  great  labor  and  skill  on  the 
face  of  the  mountain;  within  which  are  several  bas- 
reliefs,  executed  with  remarkable  spirit  and  excel- 
lence; while  a  little  beyond,  where  the  mountain 
recedes,  a  flight  of  several  hundred  steps  is  cut  on 
the  edge  of  the  nearly  precipitous  cliffs,  forming  an 
intricate  and  dangerous  ascent  towards  its  summit, 
and  finishing  abruptly  with  an  extensive  ledge  or 
platform. 

On  the  edge  of  the  river,  Sir  R.  K.  Porter  noticed 
the  remains  of  a  statue  of  colossal  size,  now  much 
mutilated,  which  he  thinks  must  have  fallen  from 


198  HISTORY  OF  PERSIA. 

the  heights  above;  as  on  the  ledge  above  is  a  row 
of  sculptured  feet  broken  off  at  the  ankles.  The 
largest  arch  measures  in  width  twenty-four  feet,  and 
in  depth  twenty-one ;  and  the  face  of  the  rock  has 
been  smoothed  for  a  great  distance  above  the  sweep 
of  the  arch,  and  on  each  side.  On  the  surface  to 
the  right  and  to  the  left  are  two  upright  entabla- 
tures, containing  exquisitely  carved  ornamentation, 
adorned  with  foliage  in  a  classical  style.  Above  the 
keystone  is  a  crescent,  and  at  the  end  of  each  curve 
are  gigantic  female  figures,  resembling  the  usual  type 
of  Victory  on  Roman  coins ;  the  artists  who  carved 
them  having  been  probably  Greeks  of  Constantino- 
ple. The  inner  face  of  the  excavation  is  divided 
into  two  compartments,  the  upper  one  of  which 
contains  three  figures,  viz.,  a  female  in  the  royal 
dress  and  wearing  the  Sassanian  diadem  ;  a  central 
figure,  doubtless  the  monarch  himself;  and  a  third 
one  wearing  a  diadem  like  that  on  the  female  head, 
and  engaged  in  presenting  a  diadem  to  the  king. 
The  lower  space  is  almost  wholly  occupied  by  a 
colossal  equestrian  figure  of  Khosru  II.,  both  horse 
and  rider  being  covered  with  a  coat  of  mail.*  The 
whole  character  of  the  man  and  horse  resembles  very 
much  the  huge  metal-covered  knights  to  be  seen  in 
illuminated  copies  of  Froissart's  Chronicles.  This 
sculpture  has  been  much  damaged  by  the  Arabs,  and 
there  are  no  intelligible  remains  of  the  inscriptions 
once  engraven  on  it.  The  details  have,  however, 

*See  Numismatic  Chronicle,  vol.  XIII.,  coin  No.  80. 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  199 

been  worked  out  with  great  care,  and,  with  the 
groups  above,  afford  accurate  and  valuable  specimens 
of  the  royal  and  military  costumes  of  the  period. 

The  sides  of  the  arch  are  covered  with  representa- 
tions of  the  sports  of  the  field,  wild  boar  and  stag 
hunts.  Many  of  the  persons  are  mounted,  while 
boats  also  appear,  probably  to  indicate  a  marshy 
country  intersected  by  small  lakes;  from  these, 
sportsmen  are  discharging  their  arrows  ;  while  pon- 
derous elephants,  with  their  riders,  plunge  through 
the  bushes  in  every  direction.  Two  of  the  boats  are 
filled  with  harpers,  perhaps  women ;  in  a  third  are 
men  with  pipes.  In  the  centre  of  the  scene  is  a 
boat,  in  which  stands  a  personage  in  stature  gigantic- 
ally taller  than  any  of  the  other  figures,  and  a  little 
lower  in  the  line  of  the  hunt  is  a  second  figure 
slightly  smaller  than  the  first,  with  a  halo  or  saintly 
glory  round  his  head.  This  figure  is  receiving  an 
arrow  from  one  of  his  attendants,  and  a  woman  sits 
near  him  in  the  same  boat,  playing  on  the  harp. 
The  bas-relief  of  the  figure  under  the  arch,  as  well 
as  the  similar  figures  on  the  coins,  represent  the 
women  as  unveiled,  thus  showing  that  they  were  not 
at  that  time  as  rigidly  secluded  as  they  have  been 
since  the  enforcement  of  the  Muhammedan  religion. 

On  the  opposite  side  of  the  arch  is  another  relief, 
representing  the  chase  of  the  deer.  On  this  the 
chief  personage  appears  nearly  at  the  top  of  the 
sculpture,  entering  the  field  in  state,  under  the  shade 
of  an  umbrella,  and  mounted  on  a  richly  capari- 
soned horse.  Below  is  a  similar  figure,  but  this  time 


20O  HISTORY   OF   PERSIA. 

moving  at  full  speed.  Towards  the  top  of  the  re- 
lief is  raised  a  scaffold,  on  which  rows  of  musicians 
are  seated,  playing  on  various  instruments,  all  curious 
specimens  of  the  art  of  the  period.  In  another 
compartment  we  see  the  carrying  off  of  the  spoil, 
and  elephants  in  pursuit  of  the  deer.  This  bas- 
relief  is  finished  in  only  a  few  places ;  parts  are 
merely  begun,  but  what  has  been  completed,  both  in 
this,  and  on  the  opposite  side,  is  executed  in  a 
masterly  style.  It  has  been  supposed  that  the  group 
of  the  three  figures  above  the  equestrian  warrior, 
commemorates  the  double  gift  by  the  emperor  Mau- 
ricius  to  the  Persian  king  of  his  bride  and  his  crown. 
On  this  supposition,  Khosru  is  standing  in  his  robes 
of  inauguration  between  the  imperial  pair,  the 
princess  on  the  one  side  holding  a  diadem,  and  the 
emperor  on  the  other  presenting  the  new  king  with 
the  crown,  to  which  the  arms  of  the  Romans  had 
restored  him.  At  the  same  time  it  must  be  remem- 
bered that  it  is  purely  an  Oriental  tradition  which 
gives  Khosru  a  Qreek  wife,  the  daughter  of  his  bene- 
factor, Mauricius,  and  that  the  story  is  scarcely  pro- 
bable. 

The  second  arch  is  smaller  in  its  dimensions  than 
the  former,  being  only  nine  feet  wide  by  twelve  in 
depth.  The  figures  on  each  side  were  originally 
rudely  and  carelessly  sculptured,  and  are  now  still 
less  visible  owing  to  the  wilful  mutilation  they  have 
sustained.  The  monument,  however,  is  of  value 
from  the  inscriptions  still  remaining  on  it,  which 
prove  that  one  of  the  figures  is  meant  for  Shahpur 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  2OI 

II.,  (Zu'laktaf),  another  for  his  son  Shahpiir  III., 
and  the  third  for  Varahran  IV.,  (Kirmanshah),  his 
brother. 

I  have  already  noticed  that  many  of  the  Sassanian 
monuments  bear  inscriptions  in  Pehlevi,  giving  the 
names  and  titles  of  the  personages  represented.  But 
there  are  two  remarkable  groups  of  inscriptions  re- 
cently made  known  by  the  labors  of  Mr.  Edward 
Thomas,  the  second  of  which,  if  correctly  inter- 
preted, reads  like  a  new  chapter  in  the  history  of  the 
East.  The  first  group  is  known  by  the  name  of  the 
"Pai  Kuli  "  inscriptions,  and  was  copied  by  Sir  H. 
C.  Rawlinson  and  Mr.  Alex.  Hector,  in  1844,  from 
a  large  number  of  blocks  of  stone  which  had  fallen 
down  from  a  building  originally  placed  on  a  rocky 
crag  at  no  great  distance  from  Suleimanieh.  Only 
detached  portions  of  one  or  more  long  inscriptions 
were  recoverable,  but  Sir  Henry  Rawlinson  thinks 
there  is  as  much  more  left  behind  to  reward  any 
future  traveler  who  may  have  the  means  of  raising 
the  fallen  blocks.  On  these  are  found  the  names 
of  Ardashir  Babekan,  Tiridates,  of  Jews,  and, 
perhaps,  of  Surena,  together  with  those  of  Persia, 
Assyria,  and  Armenia.  The  writing  is  in  all  cases 
both  in  Chaldseo-Pehlevi  and  Persian-Pehlevi,  of  the 
former  of  which  Sir  H.  C.  Rawlinson  copied  ten, 
and  of  the  latter  twenty-two  portions.  In  his 
opinion,  the  original  structure  was  a  fire-temple,  on 
the  line  of  the  well-known  road  from  Ctesiphon  to 
the  Ecbatana  of  Atropatene. 

The  second  is  the  famous  bilingual  inscription  of 


202  HISTORY  OF    PERSIA. 

Shahpur  at  Hajiabad,  first  noticed  and  partially 
copied  by  Sir  Robert  K.  Porter  (vol.  i.  p.  512). 
Of  this  accurate  plaister  casts  were  procured  nearly 
forty  years  ago,  by  Sir  Ephraim  Stannus,  but  till  Mr. 
Thomas  took  the  matter  up  in  1868,  the  inscriptions 
on  them  had  never  been  sufficiently  studied,  though 
printed  in  more  than  one  work. 

If  Mr.  Thomas  be  right  in  the  reading  he  has  pro- 
posed (and  the  evidence  he  has  brought  forward  is 
to  me  at  least  conclusive  on  this  subject),  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  in  this  inscription  may  be  re- 
cognized not  only  the  names  of  our  Saviour  and  of 
the  Jews,  but  as  he  justly  says  "  an  Eastern  para- 
phrase of  portions  of  our  Authorized  Version. ' '  That 
the  reader  may  see  the  translation  he  has  suggested 
for  some  portion  of  this  remarkable  inscription,  I 
transcribe  four  lines  here,  the  upper  one  being  that 
of  the  Chaldaeo-Pehlevi  original,  the  lower  that  of 
the  Sassanian  or  Persian.  It  will  be  at  once  seen 
that  they  represent  the  same  sense,  indeed  contain 
to  a  great  extent  the  same  words : — 

(  Chald.  Pehl.  "  The  powerful  ...  of  the  chosen  Jews  ye  (are)." 
<  Sassan.  "The supreme  Lord  of  the  Jews  outside  the  (ancient) 
(  rites  he  (is)." 

(  Chald.  Pehl.  "  Of  a  certainty,  the  Master,  the  divine  Lord,"  &c. 
\  Sassan.  "  And,  of  a  certainty,  the  Master,  the  divine  Lord," 
(  &c. 

f  Chald.  Pehl.     "  Created  Jews  of  divine  aid,  THE  Lord,  thou." 
\  Sassan.     "  Lord  (Jesus)  of  divine  aid,  (the)  Lord,  he." 

f  Chald.  Pehl.     "  And  THE  God  he  (is)  great  in  goodness." 

•j  Sassan.     "  And  THE  God  that  (is)  God-like,  abounding  in  good- 

(  ness." 

Now  we  may  be  quite  sure  that  no  one  would  have 


HISTORY   OF   PERSIA.  203 

dared  to  engrave  such  an  inscription  on  the  rock, 
except  by  the  direct  order  of  Shahpur  himself,  and 
therefore,  whether  Mr.  Thomas'  interpretation  of  it 
be  accepted  or  not,  that  it  is  a  promulgation  of  the 
religious  views  of  that  great  monarch.  It  is  quite 
likely,  as  suggested  by  Mr.  Thomas,  that  Shahpur 
was  much  under  Western  influence  after  his  capture 
of  Valerian,  in  A.D.  261,  at  the  time,  too,  when  the 
teaching  of  Mani,  himself  a  Persian  by  birth,  and 
originally  a  Christian  presbyter,  was  making  itself 
felt.  We  know  that  Mani  after  a  time  had  to  fly 
from  Persia,  and  this  may  not  impossibly  have  been 
due  to  the  influence  he  had  acquired  over  the  king, 
which  would  naturally  have  aroused  the  hatred  of 
the  fanatical  Zoroastrians :  moreover,  it  is  certain, 
that  after  the  decease  of  Shahpur,  he  returned  to  the 
Court  of  his  son,  Hormazd  I.,  where  he  was  well 
received  and  remained  for  some  years. 

I  here  draw  to  a  conclusion  such  a  notice  of  An- 
cient Persia  as  the  limit  of  one  small  volume  has 
enabled  me  to  bring  together ;  not  without  the  hope, 
that,  though  necessarily  so  brief,  the  connected  story 
of  the  three  governments  who,  in  succession,  ruled 
over  it,  may  be  found  interesting  and  useful. 


An  Important  Historical  Series. 


EPOCHS  OF  HISTORY. 

EDITED    BY 

EDWARI>   E.    MORRIS,    M.  A., 


Each  1  vol.  16mo.  with  Outline  Maps.    Price  per  volume,  in  cloth,  $1.00. 

TTISTORIES  of  countries  are  rapidly  becoming  so  numerous  that  it  is 
L  •*•  almost  impossible  for  the  most  industrious  student  to  keep  pace  with 
them.  Such  works  are,  of  course,  still  less  likely  to  be  mastered  by  those  of 
limited  leisure.  It  is  to  meet  the  wants  of  this  very  numerous  class  of 
readers  that  the  Epochs  of  History  has  been  projected.  The  series  will 
comprise  a  number  of  compact,  handsomely  printed  manuals,  prepared  by 
thoroughly  competent  hands,  each  volume  complete  in  itself,  and  sketching 
succinctly  the  most  important  epochs  in  the  world's  history,  always  making 
the  history  of  a  nation  subordinate  to  this  more  general  idea.  No  attempt 
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to  bring  out  in  the  clearest  light  the  salient  incidents  and  features  of  each 
epoch.  Special  attention  will  be  paid  to  the  literature,  manners,  state  of 
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this  arrangement  is  desirable  they  will  be  distributed  throughout  the  text  so 
as  to  be  more  easy  of  reference.  A  series  of  works  based  upon  this  general 
plan  can  not  fail  to  be  widely  useful  in  popularizing  history  as  science  has 
lately  been  popularized.  Those  who  have  been  discouraged  from  attempting 
more  ambitious  works  because  of  their  magnitude,  will  naturally  turn  to 
these  Epochs  of  History  to  get  a  general  knowledge  of  any  period ;  students 
may  use  them  to  great  advantage  in  refreshing  their  memories  and  in  keeping 
the  true  perspective  of  events,  and  in  schools  they  will  be  of  immense  service 
as  text  books, — a  point  which  shall  be  kept  constantly  in  view  in  their  pre- 
paration. 

THE  FOLLOWING  VOLUMES  ARE  NOW  READY: 
THE  ERA  OF  THE  PROTESTANT  REVOLUTION.     By  F.SEEBOHM,  Author  of 

"  The  Oxford  Reformers — Colet,  Erasmus,  More,"  with  appendix  by  Prof.  GEO.  P. 

FISHER,  of  Yale  College.    Author  of  "  HISTORY  OF  THE  REFORMATION." 
The  CRUSADES.     By  Rev.  G.  W.  Cox,  M.A.,  Author  of  the  "  History  of  Greece." 
The  THIRTY  YEARS'  WAR,  1618—1648.     By  SAMUEL  RAWSON  GARDINER. 
THE  HOUSES  OF  LANCASTER  AND  YORK;  with  the  CONQUEST  and  LOSS 

of  FRANCE.    By  JAMES  GAIRDNER  of  the  Public  Record  Office.    Now  ready. 
THE   FRENCH    REVOLUTION   AND  FIRST   EMPIRE:   an  Historical  Sketch. 

By  WILLIAM  O'CONNOR  MORRIS,  with  an  appendix  by  Hon.  ANDREW  D.  WHITE, 

President  of  Cornell  University. 

t&-Copies  sent  post-paid,  on  receipt  of  price,  by  the  Publishers. 


ANOTHER  GREAT  HISTORICAL  WORK. 


Ijjisfapg  of  Gj-PFFtF, 


By  Prof,  Dr,  ERNST  CURTIDS, 

Translated  by  ADOLPHUS  WILLIAM  WARD,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  St.  Peter's 
College,  Cambridge,  Prof,  of  History  in  Owen's  College,  Manchester. 

Complete  in  five  vola.,  crown  8vo,  at  $2,  SO  per  volume. 

PRINTED  UPON  TINTED  PAPER,  UNIFORM  WITH  MOMMSEN'S  HISTORY  OF  ROMK,  AND  THK 
LIBRARY  EDITION  or  FROUDE'S  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 


Ctirtius*  History  of  Greece  is  similar  in  plan  and  purpose  to  Mommsen's  Hist»ry  of 
R.ime,  with  which  it  deserves  to  rank  in  every  respect  as  one  of  the  great  masterpieces  of 
historical  literature.  Avoiding  the  minute  details  which  overburden  other  similar  works, 
it  groups  together  in  a  very  picturesque  manner  all  the  important  events  in  the  history  of 
this  kingdom,  which  has  exercised  such  a  wonderful  influence  upon  the  world's  civilization. 
The  narrative  of  Prof.  Curtius'  work  is  flowing  and  animated,  and  the  generalizations, 
although  bold,  are  philosophical  and  sound. 


CRITICAL  NOTICES. 

"  Professor  Curtius'  eminent  scholarship  is  a  sufficent  guarantee  for  the  trustworthiness  of 
his  history,  while  the  skill  with  which  he  groups  his  facts,  and  his  effective  mode  of  narrating 
them,  combine  to  render  it  no  less  readable  than  sound.  Professor  Curtius  everywhere  main- 
tains the  true  dignity  and  impartiality  of  history,  and  it  is  evident  his  sympathies  are  on 
the  side  of  justice,  humanity,  and  progress." — London  Athenaum. 

"  We  can  not  express  our  opinion  of  Dr.  Curtius'  book  better  than  by  saying  that  it  may 
be  fitly  ranked  with  Theodor  Mommsen's  great  work. " — London  Spectator. 

"As  an  introduction  to  the  study  of  Grecian  history,  no  previous  work  is  comparable  to 
the  present  for  vivacity  and  picturesque  beauty,  while  in  sound  learning  and  accuracy  of 
statement  it  is  not  inferior  to  the  elaborate  productions  which  enrich  the  literature  of  the 
age.1' — A^.  Y.  Daily  Tribune. 

"  The  History  of  Greece  is  treated  by  Dr.  Curtius  so  broadly  and  freely  in  the  spirit  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  that  it  becomes  in  his  hands  one  of  the  worthiest  and  most  instructive 
branches  of  study  for  all  who  desire  something  more  than  a  knowledge  of  isolated  facts  for 
their  education.  This  translation  ought  to  become  a  regular  part  pt  the  accepted  course 
of  reading  for  young  men  at  college,  and  for  all  who  are  in  training  for  the  free  political 
life  of  our  country." — A'.  Y.  Evening  Pott. 

Sent  post-paid,  upon  receipt  of  the  price,  by  the  Publishers, 

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BDINBTJRGH  REVIEW — "  Tne  BEST  Hialorr  of  the  Roman  Republic  •' 

LONDON  TIMES "BY  FAR  THE  BEST  History  of  the  Decline  and  FaD 

of  the  Roman  Commonwealth." 


THE 


FROM  THE  EARLIEST  TIME  TO  THE  PERIOD  OF  ITS  DECLINE. 
By  Dr.  THEODOB  XOMMSEN. 

Translated,  with  the  author's  sanction  and  additions,  by  the  Rev.  W.  P.  DICKSON,  Regiui 
Professor  of  Biblical  Criticism  in  the  University  of  Glasgow,  late  Classical 
Examiner  in  the  University  of  St  Andrews.     With  an  In- 
troduction by  Dr.  LEON  HARD  SCHMITZ. 

REPRINTED  FROM   THE  REVISED  LONDON  EDITION. 

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Dr.  MOMMSEN  has  long  been  known  and  appreciated  through  his  researches 
into  the  languages,  laws,  and  institutions  of  Ancient  Rome  and  Italy,  as 
the  most  thoroughly  versed  scholar  now  living  hi  these  departments  of  his- 
torical investigation.  To  a  wonderfully  exa<5t  and  exhaustive  knowledge  of 
these  subjects,  he  unites  great  powers  of  generalization,  a  vigorous,  spirited, 
and  exceedingly  graphic  style  and  keen  analytical  powers,  which  give  this 
history  a  degree  of  interest  and  a  permanent  value  possessed  by  no  othei 
record  of  the  decline  and  fall  of  the  Roman  Commonwealth.  "  Dr. 
Mommsen's  work,"  as  Dr.  Schmitz  remarks  hi  the  introduction,  "  though 
the  produ&ion  of  a  man  of  most  profound  and  extensive  learning  and 
knowledge  of  the  world,  is  not  as  much  designed  for  the  professional 
scholar  as  for  intelligent  readers  of  all  classes  who  take  an  interest  in  the  his- 
tory of  by-gone  ages,  and  are  inclined  there  to  seek  information  that  may 
guide  them  safely  through  the  perplexing  mazes  of  modern  history." 

CRITICAL  NOTICES. 

"  A  work  of  the  very  highest  merit :  its  learning  is  exact  and  profound  :  its  narrative  fuD 
of  genius  and  skill  :  its  descriptions  of  men  are  admirably  vivid.  We  wish  to  place  on 
record  our  opinion  that  Dr.  Mommsen's  is  by  far  the  best  history  of  the  Decline  and  Fall 
of  the  Roman  Commonwealth." — London  Times. 

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